I'll Be Home For Christmas
by everythingwasblue
Summary: Vanellope has been living in Slaughter Race for a few months, unable to visit her friends at the arcade due to her new game's update being pushed back. After having a wonderful dream, she makes it her mission to go back to see them for Christmas. However, when her worst nightmare becomes a reality and something more sinister lies beneath the surface, will she ever see them again?
1. Chapter 1

Vanellope's feet patted against the ground as she ran toward her destination. There was urgency as she went but a smile of glee was on her face as she found herself at the ride to Fix-It Felix Jr., where she would be visiting her friends.

She hopped on, alone and excitedly waiting for the departure as the worn carts clinked together and started off down the cord. The young girl was extremely excited—she always was when she was going to the game, but this time there was a special occasion going on that only happened once a year, which had her even more excited since she had never celebrated it with anyone before due to her years of solitude.

The station quickly came into sight as she saw the tunnel ending, and she glitched out of her seat and started off toward the tall penthouse that loomed overhead in the game. She felt herself smile when she noticed familiar faces standing around in the courtyard, where they had prepped a table and were placing food on it. Undetected, she glitched behind a bush to peek up and try to get a closer look. Her attention was grasped, however, as she turned her head and saw that her one and only best friend began to walk by and toward the table with a platter between his hands—and immediately, her actions came before her thoughts.

" _Ralph_!" a scream rattled out of her as she glitched in front of him, and his own yell came erupting from his throat, and he tossed up a plate into the air that was previously between his massive hands, to which she gasped. Thinking quickly, she glitched up and onto the top of his head, catching the silver platter atop her hands above her head as she balanced on top of the wrecker's skull.

A big duck, looking steamy and fresh—she figured it must've come from Duck Hunt—landed onto the platter, which Vanellope nearly dropped from the unexpected weight. But she didn't as she continued to balance the platter on top of her stubby fingers. Ralph looked up at her in shock and she looked down with the same look, giving an awkward laugh as she grinned.

"What's going on? We heard a scream!" a familiar voice came ringing through, and the pair's eyes darted forward to see Felix running up in concern, Calhoun not far behind with her gun already locked and loaded despite her being dressed in casual attire.

"Well, you see," Ralph started as he reached up and took the plate from Vanellope gingerly, to which she let out a sigh of relief now that she wasn't being nearly squashed by it since it was so big, "the kid here thought it would be fun to sneak up on me and nearly scare the dots out of me."

"When did you get so jumpy, Ralph?" Felix asked as he shook his head, and Calhoun slid her gun into the holster she was wearing around her waist, huffing.

"She's just a little lamb. Can't do no harm to someone as big as you." Calhoun said pointedly, and Vanellope sneered.

"Hey, Felix, has your wife ever heard of a jump-scare before?" Ralph demanded.

"Indeed she has." Felix said as he crossed his arms, looking up at his wife.

"I get jump-scared by thousands of Cybugs everyday, Ham-Hands." Calhoun responded easily, to which Felix nodded. "She could never scare me."

"I've tried." Vanellope agreed, "Sorry Ralph, you're just a scaredy-Chumbo."

"Do you get a kick out of embarrassing me, kid?" Ralph demanded to Vanellope, who was now standing on his shoulder, smirking.

The child's response started as a mischievous giggle as she glitched off of his head and between Felix and Calhoun, who were unfazed by the action, "You know you love me, Ralphie."

"Uh-huh," the wrecker rolled his eyes, "but you still almost ruined dinner. Do you know how long it took to cook this duck to perfection?"

"I don't know, why don't you ask him?" Vanellope motioned to Felix, who sheepishly looked on, wringing his hands together.

"I could've easily cooked this duck!" Ralph said as though it was so obvious, taken aback.

"No offense, Brother, but you can't even cook a cherry pie." Felix smiled, and Vanellope's smirk deepened.

"Thanks a lot." Ralph sighed.

"We all know that short stuff's got the knack for cooking," the sergeant gave an endearing look to her partner before glancing at Vanellope, "but let's eat the food and not paint Wreck-It in duck guts."

Ralph thought about that for a moment, and he made a disgusted face while Vanellope giggled.

"I'm sure that would be super funny to see, but sure thing Sarge!" she chirped, and Ralph began to walk again. The other three fell in line and followed along.

 _This_ was where she loved to be. _This_ was her home—her life, and she enjoyed every moment of it. Christmas at the arcade was nice since she had all the time off in the world and she could go anywhere. Previously in her life she had had _every day_ off, but now, she actually got the satisfaction of being able to have a well-deserved rest for the holidays, since the Arcade was closed for two weeks. She didn't care about anything and had no priorities, and she loved every waking moment of it.

Vanellope's eyes lit up at the huge table set up outside in front of the penthouse. She could already recognize some faces—Qbert and his friends, some of the Nicelanders, a couple of the bad guys had even turned out and even some of her Sugar Rush friends had joined them. She hurried over to the table as the adults continued their prepping.

"Where have you been, Vanellope?" Taffyta stared, an air of annoyance clear in her face. "We've been, like, waiting for you."

"And they almost sent Rancis after you," Candlehead added, a knowing look on her face, "but I think you would've enjoyed being escorted by him a little too much."

Vanellope glitched to their sides and she wrapped her arms around both of their necks as they gasped in surprise, "Oh, come on! Me, needing a guy to help me? Not in a million years!"

"It happened a year ago, Vanellope. A year ago." Taffyta pointed out.

"That was different and all because you guys had your brains scooped out by he who shall not be named. Besides, I don't like him. You guys are nuts." Vanellope grinned, "But I know that Taffyta has a thing for him. _Riiight_?" she nudged the racer, who immediately grew flustered.

"T-that's not true, cut it out!" she said, her cheeks quickly starting to glow. Vanellope snickered at this.

Some more conversation followed and the young girl only found herself enjoying herself more and more in the presence of those who mattered most to her. She took her seat at the table, right beside Ralph. The seat she sat in was so small in comparison to her best friend's that it made her laugh.

As more time passed and finally everyone sat down to enjoy a Christmas night together, Vanellope's heart only swelled with joy more and more as the seconds ticked by.

At the end of dinner when everyone was supposed to start heading home, she only smiled as she watched her friends go back to their game. She was planning to stay with her family for the night and wouldn't be heading back to Sugar Rush.

Once everything was cleaned up and finished and everyone was back at their own games, the four were ready to have their own little celebration inside. There was cheer and laughter and Vanellope couldn't be happier in the presence of her family. As things were winding down, Felix took a spot by the piano as he started to play a calm and soothing melodic Christmas song, to which Vanellope sat next to him, kicking her feet gently to the slow beat as he played.

Ralph, of course, couldn't help himself but decide to try and add in his own lyrics as he attempted to sing over the piano, to which Calhoun immediately told him to shut it, provoking a laugh out of Vanellope. Though all four of them were completely different, they all worked together perfectly somehow. Vanellope actually started to feel herself growing drowsy from the melody, until it stopped.

"Well, jiminey jaminey, we almost forgot!" Felix said as his blue eyes landed on his wife and friend, and Vanellope's head cocked slightly as she glanced at the other two adults.

"Huh?" Vanellope asked.

"Oh! Oh, _oh_!" Ralph immediately said in shock, expression stunned. Calhoun only rolled her eyes, but was smiling.

"I'll get it." She announced, standing up and disappearing to a different room in the penthouse. Felix had left his place by the piano and was making his way toward Ralph.

"Come over here, Vanellope." Felix invited as he took a place on the couch beside his bigger counterpart—admittedly a bit too small for someone of the wrecker's height, but it worked. Vanellope zipped over and took a seat beside the fixer, bouncing excitedly. They waited patiently in silence before Calhoun came back out, a bright-green and small gift box in between her hands as she gently placed it down in front of the child before taking a seat next to her.

"Is this some kinda sick joke? Am I gonna get a pie to the face?" Vanellope asked, suspicion in her tone as she arched a brow.

"No, ma'am. Even I can't make a pie that small." Felix replied with a smile.

"Open it, kid." Ralph encouraged, grinning.

Vanellope hesitated, but she tugged at the ribbon and it easily came off. She lifted the top off and looked inside, feeling surprise wash over her. She reached inside and lifted up a dainty little bracelet.

It was silver, and a few things were hanging off of it. She knew what this was—a charm bracelet. She had seen quite a few girls who picked her during the roster wearing them on their wrists. Her eyes widened as she examined the little charms.

One was of a small race car, the second one next to it was a closed fist, the third was a hammer and the fourth was a gun. She immediately realized what it was meant to be.

"It's supposed to represent all of us. Together." Ralph explained.

Vanellope stared down at it, not knowing what to say. She couldn't take her eyes off of the little charms.

"We know you aren't much for girly things, but still." Calhoun smiled.

"It was a little difficult to make. It took a lot of fixing since the charms were so tiny." Felix's familiar ring of his hammer could be heard as he pulled it out.

Vanellope closed her hands around it.

"I love it." She whispered, looking up gratefully.

Tears had quickly built up in her eyes, and as fast as they had come they rapidly breached the limit. She felt the familiar arms of Felix wrap around her, as did Calhoun's, and Ralph wrapped his arms around all of them. She cried out of both joy and emotional overload. She was so grateful to have them. Almost too lucky to have them.

"Merry Christmas, kid." Ralph said.

* * *

Vanellope's eyes opened and she gasped. She was staring up at her familiar ceiling of her room in Slaughter Race. There were tears at the corners of her eyes, as the dream felt all too real. She reached one arm up and ran it across her eyes, wiping away the remnants of her tears. As she went to lower her arm, she tugged her sleeve down to reveal the charm bracelet. A smile crossed her face as she looked at it, and then she sighed.

She couldn't stop thinking about her wonderful dream. It was the memory of her first Christmas with her three closest friends, and she wished she could go back. She wanted to be there with Ralph and Felix and Calhoun for Christmas, but she couldn't make it. Their update, scheduled in December, had been pushed back to January. She had been devastated by it, but duty called and she couldn't forget about it.

 _"January can't come sooner. We miss you here." Ralph said when he was on the phone with her a few weeks prior._

 _"I know, I'm sorry, Stinkbrain," Vanellope sighed, staring at his hologram longingly, "have the others forgiven me yet?"_

 _"Uhhh. . ." Ralph scratched his head, and some hope entered Vanellope's eyes, "Felix and Calhoun are still upset about no goodbye, kid. The racers too."_

 _"Oh, tell 'em I'll be back super soon, will you, Chumbo? I'll make it up to them. I promise."_

Vanellope hadn't spoken to Ralph since the call. She had a few missed calls from him, which she regretted, but she was so busy she couldn't take them. Slaughter Race demanded a lot from her constantly, and at times it got extremely tiring, but she still loved it. Her new friends were fun, her new job was fun, heck, her entire _life_ was fun, and she only kept making better and better memories everyday.

Nowadays, though, she couldn't deny it—she was thinking about her old home. She was thinking about Christmas. There was something weird to her about spending the holidays with her new friends—it felt strange. And then a grand idea came upon her.

Vanellope jumped up excitedly and gained a new-found energy as she glitched out of her bed and leapt onto her dresser. She sat down as she began to get ready for the day as she pulled her hair up into her signature ponytail, and plotted. She had lots of money from beating players into the ground and helping Shank keep her car safe. She could take that money and do something good with it. Vanellope's inspiration was growing as she only grinned to herself.

She hopped out the door and was immediately met with a wild scream and she glitched right into the scratched-up wall and spun around, pressing back as she saw Pyro taunting Little Debbie who was only shouting at him to stop since he was waving around his flamethrower, scorching some of the wallpaper. He always had that crazy look in his eyes when he let the flames rip, and as the young girl got her bearings as some heat licked at her face, she frowned for a moment. She could've been burnt into code. Well, she would've just respawned, but what she didn't like was nearly being charred the second she woke up.

Vanellope only sighed and she glitched off into the kitchen. Her eyes trailed around to look for Shank, since she had to talk to her. Urgently. She was always at home in the mornings. Finally Vanellope's eyes landed on her friend, who was standing in front of the fridge.

"Shank!" Vanellope greeted with a grin, and Shank only smiled as she made her way toward the stove, a carton of eggs in tow.

"Hi, V. How are you today?" she asked over her shoulder as Vanellope trailed behind her.

"Just great. I had the best dream." The young girl responded, emphasizing with her hands as she spread them wide. Her enthusiasm kept up as she glitched onto the counter, sitting on the edge next to Shank who was cracking an egg.

"Oh, yeah? What was it about?" Shank asked curiously.

Vanellope opened her mouth excitedly, but felt hesitation. She didn't particularly like talking about those who resided at the arcade with her new friends. It felt uncomfortable for her.

"Y'know, just uh, chasing off some kids from your car. . ." she started awkwardly, losing some of her enthusiasm. Shank raised a brow at this. "And, uh, then a unicorn came! Yeah, and then Sonic was there—it was crazy!" she started laughing, and Shank only shook her head, but a smile was still on her face.

"Mm-hmm, I'm sure," Shank replied as she reached for another egg.

Vanellope's cheeks puffed out as she abruptly interrupted her own laughter, and she got a bit serious. She tapped the counter uncomfortably with her fingertips and she sighed. There was no putting off the question. She _needed_ this.

"Shank. . . I wanna go to the arcade for Christmas."

The tall woman cracked her egg a little too hard as Vanellope said this, and the yolk went spraying out, missing the pan almost entirely. She had a look of shock on her face, and then she turned to her fellow racer and frowned as she tossed away the shell.

"Vanellope, we discussed this. You can't go. We _need_ you _here_. My car's worth doubles in price this whole month and all the gamers are going to be trying for it. Not to mention our other duties. You _cannot_ neglect them."

The young girl instantly got to her feet.

"I know that, but—"

"We also have many events to do. Have you forgotten the new quests that will be available? The stakes are very high right now."

"I-I know, Shank—!" she tried, but was once again interrupted.

"As you being part of the main group, you must be there to present yourself. This is not optional, Vanellope." Shank said firmly.

" _I miss them_!" Vanellope blurted out with a shout. Shank did a double-take, staring at the child, surprised by the outburst. "T-that's all, okay? I'm normally stone-faced about it but I miss my friends over at the arcade! I was so excited to see them for Christmas, and now I can't go, and I really wanted to, and it's _so_ unfair because I haven't been able to see _any_ of them since I've got here! I never even said goodbye. I've been horrible to them. I wanna make it up to them."

The girl ended her ramble in near tears, her vision quickly becoming blurry as she plopped back down in defeat, her arms crossed.

There was silence, and she didn't look at Shank as she bit back her tears and sharp tongue. She already knew what was coming—another lecture about how she had to be responsible, surely, which she didn't want to hear. She kept her eyes in her lap, hoping that Shank wouldn't question her too much. Because of her avoiding the older girl's face, she didn't see the twinge of discomfort that passed her face for a brief second.

As the seconds ticked by, Vanellope grew more uncomfortable. She was about to glitch off and go take a ride to get her mind off of everything. She knew Shank was right—she had to upkeep her responsibilities in Slaughter Race. There was no way she'd ever be able to go back for the holidays.

A gentle hand found itself under Vanellope's chin as her head was tilted up. Shank was smiling as she pushed some stray hair from the young girl's face.

"Alright, V. If that's what you'd like, go on."

Her eyes widened as her tears spilled over her cheeks, not expecting that response. There was confusion clear in her expression.

"Huh?" she asked meekly as her eyes searched the other racer's face, and Shank only gave a small chuckle.

"I tend to forget you're still a child even though you act like such an adult," the older racer said, "and it's not healthy for you to be away from your friends for so long. You consider them family, don't you?"

Vanellope only nodded, biting her lip. Shank kept smiling, though there was some sadness and even a bit of jealousy in her eyes—though the younger racer didn't pick up on it.

"What do you say you go see them for Christmas, then? You aren't really supposed to leave, but you know what? I think I can let it slide just this once."

"Really?" Vanellope asked, sounding watery.

"Really." Shank smiled. The candy-girl broke into a smile.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" she said with glee, glitching to her feet and wrapping her arms around Shank as much as she could, while the other only patted her head and continued her own smile. Vanellope wiped her face when she backed off, sighing in relief.

"Around here we say 'Shank you,' little sis, did you forget about that?"

Vanellope only giggled as she nudged Shank in the arm. Her negative feelings left her quickly, and a smile found itself on her face again.

"This is so exciting! I've got to call Ralph and let him know. I can't wait to see them again." Vanellope glitched away and ran back off to her bedroom. Pyro and Little Debbie were still arguing outside, but she ignored it as she glitched right through the door and jumped onto her bed.

She grabbed her little phone which was sitting right on her nightstand and she rolled over as she called Ralph. There was a smile on her face as she dialed, and felt joy bursting up in her chest. She held her breath, waiting for him to answer so that she could scream the news to him, but she heard a monotonous beeping that stopped her in her tracks.

" _The person you have called is unable to answer right now_ ," a robotic voice spoke to her, " _if you have a message for_ —Ralph! Wreck-It Ralph!" Ralph's voice came through clearly on the recording as an awkward interruption to the monotonous robot-sounding woman which made Vanellope smirk, " _—then please leave a message after the beep. Hologram will start in three, two, one._ "

There was a beep and a little light turned on, and the girl held the phone close to her.

"Ralph, I've got exciting news! Call me back as soon as you can, okay? It's super important!" she grinned, and then closed it as she jumped back up. She tugged at a scarf that was hanging loosely around the doorknob. It was chilly with Slaughter Race's internal weathering clock which was now in the icy winter months. She threw it around her neck and jumped up to a little red pom-pom hat which was hanging precariously on one of her shelves, and she glitched off and back to meet Shank.

"Not going to eat?" the brunette asked, having eaten her breakfast all too quickly for her usual slow standard. She would have been lying if she said she wasn't experiencing anxiety in the moment.

"Nope, I'm way too excited for this! Are you gonna drive me there?" Vanellope asked.

"Of course." Shank replied with that famous smile, her brows slightly furrowed. "What are friends for?"

Vanellope felt a little weird about the way she had said that, but ignored it. She kicked at the ground slightly as Shank began to ready herself by leaving the room and disappearing elsewhere. A moment later she reappeared with a long and red, beat-up looking coat around her shoulders.

"Hey, Shank? You don't have to, if you don't wanna. I know the gamers are gonna be at your throat soon."

Shank's body seemed tense, but she glanced over at her little friend and only continued to smile.

"It's fine. The crew can handle it, you know?" she replied, "Besides, your safety is more important to me."

Vanellope only smiled back, but then she paused as Shank disappeared once more. She wondered what her Slaughter Race friends would be up to on Christmas. Did they celebrate Christmas? Did they even _like_ Christmas? Was it wrong to leave them?

"I'm glad you're bundled up. Somebody could easily get frostbyte out here." Shank said as she came back, tugging on her own scratched up coat for emphasis. Vanellope was broken from her thoughts and hopped after her as she headed for the door.

"Me? Frostbyte? Never." Vanellope grinned.

They continued to talk as they got into Shank's car and headed out toward the Internet.

Vanellope never got over her awe of seeing the Internet and its hugeness. She leaned up against the door and rested her head where the window should have been, but now that they were out of the storm and into the warmer feeling environment of the world wide web, Shank put the top down and the two relaxed as they drove.

Silence had reigned for a short while as Vanellope looked all around the place. Her excitement had not wavered, but as she glanced back at Shank she could see that the adult was gripping the wheel a little too tightly. There was a stressed look on her face, and when she noticed that, some sort of discomfort welled up in the younger girl as she glitched a little.

"Hey Shank," Vanellope said, trying her best to act ignorant to the fact something was up, "do you think that. . . do you think that they hate me now?"

"Who?" Shank asked.

"You know. . ." Vanellope trailed off, not wanting to directly reference her arcade friends.

"Nah, they'll be happy to see you back." Shank responded. "It's always great to have the whole family around for Christmas, you know?"

"Mm. . ." Vanellope rested her head on her sleeve for a few moments, until something began to catch her attention, and her head lifted back up.

Something blue was waving at her, and she immediately perked when she realized who it was.

"Shank! It's Yesss! Stop the car!" Vanellope said suddenly, and Shank quickly slowed down when she too noticed. The candy-themed racer's smile spread wider on her face, as she watched Yesss run up to the car.

"Hey sweetie pie! How's my favorite little munchkin doing?" the algorithm asked with a smile, one hand on her hip and the other leaning on the car door. BuzzzTube loomed behind her, and a crowd of Internet users were trying to get her attention as they tried to come after her before Maybe stopped them in their tracks.

"I'm doing great!" Vanellope replied excitedly. "I'm gonna be going back to the arcade for Christmas."

"Oh, yeah?" Yesss matched her enthusiasm easily, her eyes lighting up. "When you get there, make sure to tell my favorite big baby that I said 'hi.'"

"I will!" Vanellope replied, but then she paused. "Hey, why don't you come take a ride with us?"

"Me?" Yesss began to laugh, laying one hand against her chest. "I don't know about that."

"C'mon!" Vanellope pleaded. "It's not like you're leaving the Internet. Hey, wait, have you ever left the Internet before?"

Yesss actually began to think about it, tapping her foot as she wondered to herself, before responding, "No. One time I got lost in Instagram though, and let me just tell you, I felt like I was stuck in the real world for a little while. But if you insist, I'll come see you off!"

"Don't you have to stay here?" Shank asked.

"Maybe's got it covered," she turned and moved aside, revealing her flustered assistant who was being swarmed with users, "see?"

"Definitely." Vanellope giggled.

"You don't mind, right?" Yesss asked Shank, who shook her head. "I haven't seen you in a hot minute, girly. How've you been?"

A moment later Yesss had jumped into the car and was leaning over toward Shank's seat, talking with her and Vanellope.

There was only a smile on Vanellope's face as she realized they would be there soon.

There was a transportation area, which led directly to the arcade—rather, anywhere. It was a series of tubes—all one had to do was type their destination into a little computer, get in the tube, and then blast off. It was near the center hub where Vanellope and Ralph had been transported in the first time, in a nearby building where the tubes shot directly up to the 'sky' and took people to where they wanted to be. She saw Ralph off the last time he was there, which had been too long ago for Vanellope's tastes, so she knew how it worked. It took him forever to figure out, and she watched him while trying to hold back her laughter.

"How long will you be staying, sweetie?" Yesss piped up, and Vanellope rolled her shoulders.

"Oh, just for Christmas. It's in a few days. So I shouldn't be gone for more than a week. I just. . . geez, I really need a break." Vanellope sighed, and that's when her eyes widened. "Shank, hold up a sec! I wanted to go and buy Christmas gifts for everyone! Can we stop at some stores real quick?"

"Of course. That's a great idea." Shank smiled weakly.

For a while the three bounced around from Amazon to H&M looking for the perfect presents. Yesss and Vanellope were heavily debating whether or not a certain shirt was suitable for Ralph's tastes or not for quite a while before they finally agreed on something entirely different, while Shank just slowly shook her head, lost in thought.

Vanellope had decided on quite a few selections, but narrowed it down to only a few gifts. She was having a great time with her two friends, and she was truly enjoying herself. Her and Yesss laughed it up while Shank only lagged behind a little, her hands shoved in her pockets uneasily as they went on. She bit onto her lip apprehensively, looking on edge but snapping out of it whenever her young friend would ask her opinion on any of the presents she was picking out.

Once they went to check out of H&M and Vanellope had scored a plentiful amount of gifts for her friends, Yesss offered to paid for all of it, but the racer insisted on using her own money, to which Yesss let her—but never mentioned to Vanellope that she suddenly got all the money transferred back into her account that she'd spent, and then some. Yesss couldn't hide the fact that she truly cared about Vanellope and Ralph, and never minded looking out for them.

"We're out of this item, ma'am. I'm afraid you'll have to get something else." The cashier said, an orange sir who seemed extremely unamused. When he picked up the out of stocked items—two PJs in the form of a small and silvery, compacted rectangle with the icon of pajamas sitting inside—they disintegrated in his hands.

"Wha—huh? Aww, man! Sarge and Felix would've loved them!" Vanellope exclaimed in exasperation. "Matching pajamas? What couple doesn't love matching pajamas?" she went on in disappointment, staring at Yesss.

"I'm sorry, but this item is in too many people's carts already. We've ran out." The orange man responded.

"It clearly said there was a few pieces left. Why was it on the shelf?" Vanellope asked with a frown.

"That I cannot explain. It must be our servers acting buggy. Find something else, please, or pay upfront now." The cashier went on impatiently.

Yesss had been silent, but now her mouth pulled into a frown.

"Do you _know_ who I am?" Yesss demanded as she slammed a fist down on the counter. The cashier didn't flinch, but waited for an explanation. "I'm Yesss from BuzzzTube. Do you really want your store to have a bad reputation for misleading their customers into thinking that sold out items are still available? Making Christmas a misery for. . . for a little girl, of all people!" she went on, sounding more appalled as the seconds ticked by. She had already pulled out her phone and her camera was rolling. This seemed to cause a slight reaction from the cashier as he twitched. "This is horrible! I can't believe that you would do such a thing."

Vanellope let out a wail, a bit fake, but still convincing enough.

"This store is making their customers cry. Can you believe it?" Yesss asked the camera.

"Alright, alright! Fine, fine!" the cashier glanced over and saw another customer not far away, an Internet user browsing other clothes. The cashier, quick as a flash sped toward the user, removed the pajamas from the cart, and scurried back behind the counter as though nothing had happened.

Yesss and Vanellope were extremely content after that with their items in tow, and they walked out giggling.

On the car ride to go back to the arcade, Vanellope's mind began to race.

She thought about Sugar Rush and all her friends. She missed it, as much as she hated to admit it. Her memories in the game were fairly terrible—being treated horribly by the other racers for years, the tyrant of her life also known as 'he who shall not be named' trying to kill her, and because of much more, she couldn't help but feel strange about missing it.

It was in her code to want to race, but maybe it was in her code to want to race in Sugar Rush. After all, what did she really do in Slaughter Race? Sure, she raced when they had the time to and she had all the freedom in the world, but most of the time she was a 'NPC' that stood around waiting for fools to try and snag Shank's ride, only to chase them off. It wasn't right to her. . . _was_ it?

Shank pulled up and got out of her car, going over to set up the send-off for Vanellope. Her and Yesss got out of the car too, slowly following after her.

"Well Vanellope, you should really come by BuzzzTube more often. You're always welcome there." Yesss was saying, and Vanellope only cheerily nodded as they walked into the building, getting onto a line to wait to be transported.

"Soon! Maybe I can convince the whole gang to come along. I think Felix and Calhoun would really like you."

"You four could make a video together and go viral if you wanted. The people will be calling it the crossover of the year. Don't worry, I'll help you out." Yesss winked.

The line went by fairly quickly as Internet user after Internet user zoomed up the tube and disappeared. When it was her turn, Vanellope glitched to one of the tubes and Yesss followed along, handing her the things that the little girl had bought. Vanellope only smiled up at her.

"Thanks, Yesss," she said gratefully, "you didn't have to almost get that guy fired, though."

"No problem Sugarplum, and I've always got your back. Therefore it's my job to get people who are nasty to little girls almost fired." Yesss pointed her fingers at her, smiling widely.

Shank came over hesitantly as Yesss backed off. The other racer bent down to Vanellope's level.

"I hope that you have a good time there." She said, but in her eyes spoke a different story. They reflected anxiety and nervousness, but Vanellope missed it entirely.

"Shank you, Shank." Vanellope grinned. She hugged the older woman until a moment later they split apart.

Vanellope awaited her little pod to come suck her and her items up. She bit onto her lip as she stared up, preparing her tiny body for a fun time traveling back.

Shank and Yesss were talking out of earshot as she waited patiently. But there was something off. Vanellope immediately got suspicious as she saw them both standing over the control panel, their expressions perplexed and mixed.

"Hey, c'mon, what's the hold up? I'm not getting any younger!" Vanellope called.

"Litwak's Arcade, right?" Yesss asked, and Vanellope nodded. "How do you spell that?"

"Oh, sweet mother of monkey milk." Vanellope rolled her eyes in irritation and glitched back over, right between Yesss's hands, who caught onto her just in time. Vanellope read the words on the mini screen and was a bit surprised to see everything was in order, but there was a different story on-screen.

 _Destination does not exist._

"Huh. . . this machine must be broken." she concluded.

She glitched over to the next one and hopped up, typing in the same place. This machine said the same thing, and Vanellope felt a sprout of anxiety grow in the pit of her stomach. She looked at the two adults who shared an uncertain glance. Vanellope took in a breath as she glitched, and then she raced over to the next one, shoving an Internet user aside violently in her nervous state. The same message came up.

Vanellope's panic began to rise up in her throat as she ran around to every single machine, throwing beside various Internet users and desperately trying to get any single one to work. Her glitching increased as her panic surged up in her chest, and she could hear her two friends calling after her to stop. She didn't stop though—she would _never_ stop.

She was a flurry of pixels jumping back and forth until she reached the final one and still, her destination— _her home_ —did not exist.

Her determination relinquished as she stood still in shock, and realized something was very, very wrong. Once again her pixels burst into a flurry of blue and codes, and she tore her phone out shakily. She called Ralph's number again and hoped, no, _prayed_ that he would pick up. She bit her lip and tapped a foot impatiently, her face twisting with anxiety.

"Please, please, please. . ." she chanted quietly, her eyes shutting. The ringing stopped, and for a moment, she had hope, until once again the monotonous voice began to blare, and she closed her phone in shock. What had happened to her best friend? Everyone else? Why was it not coming up as a destination?

"Are you okay sweetie?" Vanellope hardly heard Yesss, who was sitting on her knees next to the young girl.

"N-no. . . n-no, I'm n-not!" she stammered, her glitches becoming more violent. " _Why_? Why can't I go back? W-what's happening?" she asked with a piercing cry.

"It's probably a malfunction, honey. We'll get you there, I promise." Yesss said reassuringly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not a malfunction."

Yesss and Vanellope's heads both whirled toward Shank. She had a grim look on her face.

"What?" Yesss asked, frowning. "What makes you say that?"

"Because. . ." Shank trailed off. She hesitated, before sighing. "Check your voicemail, Vanellope."

The girl's eyes widened a little before she reached back for her phone, moving closer to Yesss as she went to her inbox. A frown crossed her face and she stared up at Shank.

"You went through them? Without _asking_ me?" Vanellope demanded, who didn't even know there was any messages for her since they had all been played already, and therefore gave her no notification whatsoever. There was no answer from Shank, but now Vanellope was furious as she pulled up at least seven missed voicemails. She played the first one and was greeted with Ralph's smiling face as the blue hologram appeared in front of her.

"Hey kid! Uh, I hope you're doing good over there. I was thinking of dropping by in a few days. You're probably busy, but uh—"

"Move over Wreck-It!" Calhoun's voice was somewhere in the background, and she came into view a moment later, clearly stealing the phone from Ralph. She looked around the holographic screen for a moment before she began to nod in approval. "We could really use some of these in my game. It would make communication so much easier. If only the numb-nuts who programmed my game knew any better."

Felix's face poked up in front of her shoulder—he was probably standing tiptoe on something, probably the couch in Ralph's apartment, to just be able to be seen.

"Oh my land, they have holograms on the Internet?"

"They have _everything_ on the Internet." Ralph interjected from somewhere.

"Right you are, Wreck-It. Anyway, we just wanted to say that we miss you around here." Calhoun spoke, smiling softly.

"Yes! We do, and we can't wait to see you back." Felix added. "I'm still disappointed that we never received a good-bye, little lady."

"Yeah, what's that all about?" Calhoun asked, putting on a half-scowl, the corners of her mouth still turned up despite her frown. "We forgive you, but next time all you have to do is mosey down to Game Central Station to say goodbye and we'll be satisfied, if it isn't too much trouble."

"That's right," Felix agreed, his smile still plastered onto his face, "and we're going to have so much fun once you get back. Maybe you can even beat the other kids in a race or two!"

"I think they need to be knocked down a few pegs. They've gotten too cocky in your absence." Calhoun smirked, and Felix only nodded in agreement.

"But, uh, we miss you, kid." The hologram switched back over to Ralph. "We're always here for you, though. And, uh. . . well, this message is getting long," he scratched the back of his neck, "so we'll let you go. Get back to me soon, okay?"

"We love you kiddo!" Felix's voice came in as he popped up near Ralph's shoulder, Calhoun on the other side.

"Don't forget it soldier." She said, her smile bright.

"Bye Vanellope." Ralph said with a smile as the other two waved, and then, silence.

The hologram ended. Vanellope's heart had swelled up with happiness to see the three of them again, even if it was just a message.

"They really do love you." Yesss said gently, smiling at the little girl. Vanellope looked to her.

"Yeah. . ." she replied with her own smile.

She pulled up the next one.

"Hey kid. Uh, it's been a while. . . I hope you got my last message. It was kind of long, so I'll make this one short. Uh. . ." Ralph seemed distracted by something for a moment as his gaze left his phone, and he looked lost in thought. Silence reigned for a few moments. Then, he looked back at the camera, "We all miss you here. Things. . . are going alright. Going okay. Call me back, kid."

It ended abruptly. Vanellope felt off-put by the message, and she stared uneasily as she clicked the next one. Yesss's attention was glued to the hologram, too, while Shank seemed unable to watch.

"Sorry, uh, I'm not sure how to tell you about this news, but I'm going to come to the Internet as soon as possible. Things are getting kind of crazy around here. Uh. . . strange stuff is happening. Pac-Man started acting up today, and it _never_ acts up. Don't worry, everyone made it out of the game okay! Litwak said something about it overheating, so it got unplugged, but it was pretty glitchy these past few days, I heard some kids complaining about it. This is uh. . . the second game that this has happened to. I don't want you to be worried or anything though. I'm sure things will get better, I just gotta come and tell you about some stuff that's going on."

That was alarming. It also cut off pretty abruptly.

The next one. . . after this, there was only a few more.

"Kid, things on this end are going pretty horribly around here. Well. . . I just gotta tell you that our game's been unplugged and a few others have too," and at this, Vanellope gasped, "and it's a miracle we got out. Apparently it was randomly pulled out without warning. A lot of the Nicelanders. . . well, they had no idea. _We_ had no idea, but it was for the same reason—apparently we were overheating, and bugging out a little, but we still have no clue why. So. . . uh, most of them are gone. We're taking it pretty hard. Felix and I are fine, but, listen, I just sound like I'm worrying you. Call me when you get the chance."

Vanellope felt uneasy and hesitant as she clicked onto the next one.

It was a load of garbled static, and Vanellope only shook her head in disbelief. She clicked onto the next one. More garbled static. Panic began to take back over when she heard screams through the garbles. She was confused as it cut off. She only shook her head more as she clicked onto the next one. The hologram came up looking a bit dodgy and static-filled. Ralph was there, looking disheveled and messy, breathing hard.

"Kid, you wouldn't believe what's going on over here. Listen, there's no time to explain, but we're trying to get out. Game Central Station is in trouble. It makes no sense, I know, but something happened. The outlet. . . there was too much overheating, that's what we're thinking happened. I just wanted to call you and tell you that if we don't get out of here, which might be a possibility . . . that I love you, Vanellope. We all do."

There was more yells in the background and Ralph started to cough, and then, it ended again.

Vanellope's eyes widened as she realized that was the last message she'd received. She looked at Yesss, who was equally as alarmed, and then she looked at Shank.

"W-what is this? What does this mean?" the girl cried, demanding answers.

The adult racer looked away, running a hand through her hair hesitantly.

"Vanellope. . ." she trailed off.

"What's going on? You obviously know something is up, Shank. C'mon, don't lie." Yesss said as she got to her feet.

"Alright. . . I do know." Shank said hesitantly, "But I don't know how to tell her."

"Tell me right now!" Vanellope shouted, a glitch running through her violently. "I _need_ to know! You _can't_ keep it from me!" her voice got louder.

"Litwak's is _closed_ Vanellope." Shank finally said, and the girl's eyes widened.

"What are you talking about?" Vanellope's voice cracked. "You're lying!"

"I'm not lying." Shank said, her voice rising in pain. "It's not a lie, I promise."

" _Why would it close_?" Vanellope shrieked.

"Because. . . because. . ." Shank hesitated. "Because it burned down."

Vanellope's jaw slackened, and the phone slipped between her fingers.

Time felt slow. Everything around Vanellope tuned out as she fell onto her knees.

Litwak's was _gone_? Her home. . . was _gone_? Everything she knew. . . was _gone_? Everyone she knew, was _gone_?

"I'm so sorry Vanellope. They're calling it a freak accident. When I watched the messages over I went to the search bar to see if it was true that something had become of Litwak's. The whole place burned down in the middle of the night, and they think that it's because of a faulty outlet or screwy wiring. Apparently there was too many things plugged in, the entire thing overheated and caught flames, and. . ."

Vanellope became distant as she stopped listening, and her mind went elsewhere. She thought about how she never properly said goodbye to her friends. She thought about how she never saw Ralph again. She thought about how she broke her promise to Ralph that she would return for Christmas. She thought about how much she was desiring to go back, but there was nowhere to go back to.

And she could only assume all her friends were dead. Her _family_ was _dead_ , because if they weren't, they would have come to Slaughter Race to see her.

The loudest scream of pain immediately came tumbling out of Vanellope at this sudden realization.

Her glitches became fervent as her fingers ran through her hair as she gripped at her roots, pulling harshly on them, and she screamed even louder, which was now garbled from the glitching. Eventually her voice gave out, and she began to sputter as her throat burned, and she only let out a half-sob, half-choke of pain.

She had been right. She _wouldn't_ be seeing them for the holidays after all. Everyone she loved was gone, and she was never going to see them again.

* * *

 **Author's note** :

Nothing like some good old Christmas themed angst, right?

In all seriousness, this was going to just be a one-shot where it ended just like that. But of course, I can't allow myself, and I'll be continuing this. At most this will have one or two more chapters, that's all. I wanted to play around with the idea of, what if Game Central Station was gone? What if all the games got unplugged and Vanellope could never go back? How would she react?

Thus, because of my wild imagination, this was born. Anywho, see you in the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** : Alright, so maybe I lied a little (to myself as well). This might be a little more than just three chapters. Just because I keep letting my imagination run wild, though. I need to get this thing under control, haha.

Before we get to the chapter, I'll respond to the reviews :) by the way, the reviews made me so happy. It really makes my heart explode when people show support or interest in what I write. It makes me want to write so much more! So to all of you who reviewed, thank you so so much. I'd also like to mention that my inbox is always open to anyone who would love to talk about Wreck-It Ralph. I love chatting with people who read my stories.

The reviews;

 **xPrettyLittleThing** **:** Thank you so much!

 **lalalei:** LOL yeah that would suck... so we'll see what happens ;)

 **Guest Reader:** Your reaction was honestly my reaction to the end of Ralph Breaks the Internet, lol.

 **SolarFlare579:** Because I'm really really evil. (and I love angst, but I'm sorry you're sad! don't be sad!)

 **DaBlueVanellope:** Haha well if you're reading this then it means the next chapter is out :) and I love Calhoun! But no guarantees of her safety.

 **Guest:** Ha, well that's definitely the way RBTI portrayed her. I thought she was fairly out of character in the second movie so I'm trying to do her some justice here haha. (But I agree. I don't like Slaughter Race as much as I like Sugar Rush.)

Without further ado, I present chapter 2.

* * *

 _Chapter 2_

* * *

For the first time in Vanellope's life, she felt the worst she had ever felt in her entire life.

Sure, she glitched plenty of times before - pretty violently as well, and the feeling of having your skin crackling apart and blowing up into a storm of pixels every so often wasn't such a lovely feeling, but she had never actually felt like she was _dying_.

Another sob forced its way from her lips as shut her eyes and tipped her head back at the ceiling, wondering what she'd done to deserve any of what was happening to her right now.

A moment later, she felt something soft hugging her, but she couldn't even process it. Yesss was there, though, gripping onto her as she glitched and her wails shook her whole body. The algorithm's eyes were still wide as she searched the ground, trying to find any words to offer to her. But the blow had hit her, too. Certainly not as hard as it hit Vanellope, but she couldn't imagine never seeing her goofy wrecker friend again. They'd made many videos together that went viral, and she really did care about him. The thought of never seeing him again? It hurt her a lot. And if Vanellope's other friends were as nice as she had described them, then Yesss found it a major loss to have never had the pleasure of meeting them.

At that point, Vanellope had plastered herself against Yesss's shoulder, and the overseer of BuzzzTube rose slowly to her feet, the distraught girl still in her arms.

Shank wanted to offer her own comfort, clearly, as she moved forward and put one hand out to rest on Vanellope, but Yesss pulled back. If the older racer was honest with herself, she had never seen the look on Yesss's face that she was seeing now. Whenever she'd been with Yesss—most of the time—it was a different story, all smiles and laughter and her being cordial. Now she was met with a dark look, mixed with rage and a little bit of sadness.

"You let her come here anyway? When you _knew_ she wouldn't be able to go?" Yesss finally demanded, breaking her silence. Shank's hand slowly lowered, and she bit onto her lip apprehensively as she thought up a response. She knew that had been her number one flaw when she agreed to letting Vanellope go back. . . when she knew there was nowhere to go back to.

"I didn't know how to tell her." Shank admitted, pain clear in her expression.

Vanellope's wails only grew louder as Yesss's arms wrapped more securely around her. The algorithm glared ahead.

"Well, _Shank_ , I thought you would've known better than to do something like this. You're supposed to be cool, not. . . this. It's _not_ a cute look. Oh, sugarplum, please calm down," the blue woman attempted to console the lost child, "they could still be out there."

Vanellope attempted to formulate words, but they only came out as a strangled sob as she glitched again.

"Let me take her home." Shank offered hesitantly, and she kicked her foot against the ground uneasily. "I think she needs to be alone."

"The last thing she needs is to be alone, especially alone with _you_ around." Yesss frowned at her, and Shank's own agitation began to show.

"We all grieve differently, Yesss," she sounded a bit bitter.

"You're right. But she's a little girl, and I'm not gonna let her go home with you because you were the one who lied about it. Maybe if you let her read those messages she would've been able to say goodbye—"

"I know. Don't say it. I. . ." Shank trailed off, on the verge of losing her cool, "I just wanted to protect her. I knew if she figured out what was happening, she would want to go back, and she would risk getting herself killed. I couldn't have that happen."

"I understand, but you still went about all of this the wrong way." Yesss said politely, although she was incredibly disappointed in her friend—clear by the look in her eyes. "She never got to say any final words to them, because of what you did."

That struck Shank a certain way, and she almost physically stumbled as though she had been hit. Her eyes flitted to the ground as she ran a hand through her hair, letting out a shaky sigh.

"Just know that I did it for her own good. I know she probably won't want to see me for a while. Maybe it is best if you take care of her for now."

A pause followed for only a brief moment.

"I. . ." Vanellope was able to finally find a word to say, raising her head. Her whole face was wet with tears and reddened. She pointed at Shank, her whole arm tremoring, "I never want to see you again!" she said through a mess of hiccups and sobs. Shank's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't speak as her friend went back into a torrent of crying.

Yesss only shook her head as she ran a hand along Vanellope's back.

"I did it to protect you, Vanellope! You could have died! And I know you'd want to go because that's your _real_ family, and you most certainly wouldn't have come back unscathed!" Shank's fists were balled in frustration.

" _I don't care_!" Vanellope shouted at her. Both Yesss and Shank were horrified at what she said next, "I would have rather _died_ trying rather than knowing they're all gone, and I couldn't do anything to save them!"

Yesss's jaw clenched shut as Vanellope's face pressed back into her shoulder. Shank's, on the other hand, was dropped, and her knuckles were so white that they might've all just snapped right there if she exerted any more pressure onto them. Instead of saying anything else, she shut her mouth and she turned, slamming through the doors of the transportation building and taking her leave as she began to walk back to her car.

The BuzzzTube representative followed her out but kept herself parked by the doors, a mixture of a disturbed and disgusted look on her face. Shank looked at her one last time as she snapped the door shut with vicious force, but couldn't seem to bear looking any longer. She sped off and disappeared, leaving gas fumes in her wake.

"Way to run from your problems as usual, Shank." Yesss hissed under her breath.

* * *

Over at the Oh My Disney website, the princesses were all together, watching a BuzzzTube 'Try Not To Laugh Challenge.' A few of the girls were stone-cold, like Tiana, Elsa, Pocahontas, and oddly enough Snow White was easily holding out, while the rest of the girls were struggling.

On the massive television screen they were all huddled around with their bean bags came a new video, one that was about to catch the group off guard. It was a cat. At first, there was a scoff from Anna.

"This isn't going to be funny at _all_ , you guys, trust me."

"I'm sure. These cat videos are so played out." Jasmine responded, her eyelids half fallen over her eyes.

"You can say that again." Cinderella agreed, thinking of her own grudge with a certain cat she really disliked. Aurora lazily nodded, trying to keep herself awake, her sleepiness showcasing just how bored she was.

A moment later the cat began to shake its rear as it crouched, trying to make it over to a couch from where it was standing on a coffee table. It prepared itself well, and then it leapt, but failed as its face went diving straight into the couch, missing the jump entirely before falling out of frame.

The group seemed to erupt into laughter. Aurora was quickly awake as Merida hollered and shook her. Even Tiana attempted to stifle laughter, while Elsa and Pocahontas just shared a glance and shook their heads.

"Play it again!" Anna shouted.

Rapunzel's laughter had just subsided before she realized her phone was ringing, and she perked up at the buzz in her pocket. She opened up her phone and placed the phone to her ear and tried to listen over her friends' commotion.

"Hello?" she asked. Moana was still giggling when she turned her head and noticed she was on the phone and immediately jabbed Merida who was still roaring with laughter, and a bit of silence fell over the room.

"Hey Punzie, how's it going these days?" Yesss asked, but Rapunzel immediately felt suspicious. For one, Yesss never called, and two, she sounded pretty stressed out.

"I'm doing pretty great, how about you?" Rapunzel responded with a smile, but a brow was raised.

"Oh, you know, I've been better, honey." Yesss gave an uncomfortable and forced laugh.

"Alright, what's up with you?"

Suddenly from the other side of the line there was a little intelligible sound that became very clear very quickly. It was a sob, almost like someone over there was hyperventilating, and Rapunzel's concern easily doubled.

"What is that?" Snow White whispered, since all of them in such close proximity to Rapunzel were able to hear it.

"Yesss?" Rapunzel asked again.

"Listen, I just was wondering if someone could come here and pick me up. I've kinda gotten stranded. . . oh, sweetie. . ." Yesss's voice faded slightly.

"Aye, I'll betcha someone's havin' a breakdown." Merida clearly said, though everyone ignored her.

"Stranded? Aren't you at BuzzzTube headquarters?" Rapunzel inquired. "I mean, of course we'll get someone to pick you up, but why do you want to come here? You don't visit." And then the strain continued—the hyperventilating became more clear, and sobs were able to be heard even more. "Who's crying?" Rapunzel asked.

"Oh no, someone's having a breakdown!" Ariel cried, her eyes widened.

"I just sai—never mind." Merida muttered under her breath.

"It's Vanellope."

"Vanellope?" Rapunzel demanded, and she shot to her feet in an instant. Mulan snapped her fingers and pointed to their weapons which were on the other side of the room propped up, and some of the other princesses began to murmur among themselves, concern clear in their faces while a few of them ran to get suited up. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain when I get there. It's a long story. We're stuck out at the central hub."

"We can go. We'll get there the fastest." Elsa was on her feet, and Jasmine was right beside her.

"I'm going too!" Ariel insisted, and then the whole group began to agree.

"For the love of everything trending. . ." Yesss sighed under her breath, though was happy to see the dedication of the princesses toward the child who was still in her arms.

"No. Elsa and Jasmine, go. We don't want to overwhelm her. We don't even know what's going on yet." Rapunzel pointed out.

"She's right." Pocahontas hesitantly agreed, putting her stick back down. Jasmine and Elsa at this newfound approval instantly headed for the door, Jasmine grabbing onto the magic carpet before dashing out.

"Thank you, Punz. Don't know what I'd do without you. I would've gotten Maybe to pick me up, but you know how men are. And by that, I mean he's covering for me right now and can't leave his post." Yesss said.

"It's okay. They'll be there soon. I'll see you then?" Rapunzel asked.

"Alright sweetie. See you then."

When she got off the phone, the group seemed to explode.

"Don't you dare put that stick down, Pocahontas." Moana was commanding. "We've got someone to take down, and I've got Maui on speed-dial. Whoever's hurt Vanellope won't last for a second."

"Yeah, that's right." Anna agreed, and Merida was already pulling out her bow and loading arrows, while Mulan got ready to strike with her sword.

"They're gonna pay for it, too. We'll make sure of that." Ariel said, a little dark for her normal upbeat tone.

Rapunzel only rubbed at one of her temples and sighed.

After some consoling, Rapunzel was able to convince the others that they should wait and hear what happened before they get crazy about it. There was some divided agreement, but at least they had mostly calmed down.

All of the ladies were waiting at the door for Yesss and Vanellope. Elsa and Jasmine came in first, a grim look on both of their faces. The algorithm was following behind, a familiar friend in her arms.

At once, all the princesses felt taken aback. They had never seen Vanellope cry, not once. She didn't really seem like a crier to any of them—she was a really tough kid. But what they were seeing was not just a crying child, but a girl in one of the most horrible states they had ever seen.

They all knew well of Vanellope's glitch and found it to be an incredible superpower, though at that moment, it was only making the girl's misery seem worse. She was 'distraught beyond saving' is what immediately popped into the mind of the princesses. The crying was of a girl with a broken heart, and they knew how horrible heartbreak could be. The glitching was violent and fervent—something none of them had witnessed before, but could have definitely lived without witnessing.

Though Vanellope had tired herself out. After a few minutes of the girls trying to find the right words to say anything whatsoever while Yesss just tried her best to offer a slice of comfort, Vanellope's glitching began to slow down, and her sobs became smaller, until finally, she had successfully cried herself into exhaustion. Yesss felt relief to see that she was now asleep.

They all sat down together so that the blue algorithm could explain the story. Rapunzel had taken responsibility to hold Vanellope, trying to make her as comfortable as possible as she listened to the story.

As Yesss continued on in telling it, her own expression became dark and angered. The girls reacted with shock and disgust and also sadness. They all knew of Shank—then again, who didn't?—and were pretty surprised to hear this.

"And I thought better of her." Belle shook her head.

"That's what I was thinking." Yesss sighed. "But I'm going to be keeping a look out for her friends and try to find out what happened. The Internet is too big to explore with just one person, so I'm not sure how I'm going to do it."

"We could help!" Anna immediately offered, to which the others nodded, but Yesss only shook her head.

"Thank you for being so kind, but I know you girls have a job to do here. Leave the dirty work to me."

There was more talking among the girls before Yesss had to excuse herself back to BuzzzTube.

"We'll take care of her. Don't worry." Moana reassured with a solemn look.

"I knew I could trust you girls." Yesss smiled. "If you need me, though, give me a call. I'll come back later to check up on the munchkin, but right now, I have to get discovering. Thirty year old arcades don't just magically burst into flames, you know?"

"Of course. She's in good hands." Elsa responded, smiling slightly as she motioned with her own.

"I'd laugh if I weren't so depressed." Yesss found her own little smile, though she was a different story on the inside. "Now, I've got a lot to do, so I'll see you ladies around."

Jasmine went back out to take Yesss back to BuzzzTube, and the rest of the girls were gathered together.

"What should we do?" Anna asked.

"We cannot overwhelm her." Pocahontas quickly advised.

"Oh, maybe one or two of us should watch after her then. Or we'll take turns!" Ariel suggested.

"That's not a bad idea." Belle said, to which Cinderella and Tiana nodded in agreement.

"We should try to cheer her up." Snow White said, and Aurora cocked her head.

"How could we do that? She lost everything. I doubt anything could lift her spirits."

"I. . . can make some soup for her." Tiana thought aloud. "Yes, that would be perfect. That always makes me feel better."

"Maybe Rapunzel, Anna and I could console her. The three of us know. . . what it's like to feel like we've lost everything, to feel stranded and all alone." Elsa said, to which her sister only nodded. "Rapunzel, you're also a good speaker."

Rapunzel blinked, and only nodded.

"Of course I'll be willing to console."

"Ooh, Belle and I could show her around the site and she could meet new friends. Maybe." Ariel piped up, and Belle smiled as she gave a nod.

"I could teach her how ta shoot'a bow!" Merida grinned, but as per the norm, the other girls were unsure of what exactly she said. If they had heard, they definitely wouldn't have approved.

"T-that's a great idea!" Moana smiled uneasily, to which the others also nodded. Merida only smirked proudly.

"Alright girls, let's get to work." Rapunzel said with a smile.

* * *

When Yesss returned to her post at BuzzzTube, she wasn't expecting to see a lost looking Shank outside her office door. She was leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed, her eyes shot down at the ground. The algorithm only gave her an uncertain glance as she walked toward her door, one hand gripped around the doorknob when the other woman finally spoke up.

"Can we talk? Please?"

There was an edge in her voice that Yesss recognized. The sort of 'please let me talk to you before I have a mental breakdown' edge.

"I shouldn't speak with you since I am very busy and have many things to do. . ." Yesss started, opening the door, "but I suppose we _can_ chatter if that's what you truly want."

Shank nearly melted into the floor.

Yesss walked into her office, feeling especially aggravated by the presence of the adult racer. She certainly didn't want to have a talk with her.

When Yesss plopped into her seat and stared down the papers on her desk rather than Shank, Maybe who was standing innocently in the corner knew something was up right away. He was still slightly traumatized from his experience with the Internet users from prior, but he was recovered enough to notice the tension. It was almost choking up the entire room. He also could tell his boss wasn't in a good mood, and he _hated_ her bad moods.

"Listen, Yesss, I couldn't just tell her she couldn't go. I didn't have the heart to." Shank began.

"I know that, but you still led her on, Shank. Are we seeing eye to eye? Because I _don't_ think we are." Yesss responded in irritation. "Why didn't you let her see those messages?"

"Because she would have wanted to go back." Shank's voice was quiet. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were darted toward the side instead of looking at Yesss. If she did look at Yesss, she would've been greeted with a sudden and icy expression of disgust.

"And you wanted to prevent that?" Yesss demanded.

"No, it wasn't like that. I would have never forced her to stay here. You know that."

"Well, apparently I don't know after the stunt you pulled today." The other woman responded, leaning her head on one hand boredly. Shank visibly bristled in agitation.

"I already told you I didn't want her getting hurt, didn't you listen to the messages? I knew that there was going to be danger in the arcade. That's why I refused to let her read the messages."

Yesss's eyes widened again, and she searched Shank's face in confusion.

"What? What are you saying?" she asked as she straightened.

"The virus that messed up Slaughter Race and took over the web didn't just disappear. They never do unless you have a good enough anti-virus." Shank answered. "Litwak's doesn't have an anti-virus."

"And what does that have to do with—?" Yesss started, but was interrupted.

"The virus went to Ralph."

Yesss only did a doubletake as she began to shake her head.

"How did it manage to do that, Shank, and him specifically? That's far-fetched. More far-fetched than the idea of an 'open sesabees' joke going viral twice."

"Not completely far-fetched," Shank responded impatiently, "viruses don't just die. Did you think when everything went back to normal the virus just slunk back into the depths of the Dark Net where Ralph even got it from?" Yesss's jaw was tight as she listened to her. "He's lucky I didn't confront him for toying with my game. All that matters is V and him got out safely, but you know how much was lost in that reboot? Reboots don't just happen for no reason, and the players weren't happy about losing progress."

"Where is this going exactly?" Yesss asked, equating Shank's impatience.

"I'm just saying that because he did that, the virus wanted to go back to Slaughter Race since that's where it first appeared."

"Okay. And how are you so sure that it followed him?" Yesss snapped. "It could've gone anywhere else."

"But it didn't. My theory is that it wanted to follow him because he thought he would be at Slaughter Race, and. . ." Shank trailed off. Yesss was waiting on edge, leaning forward, keeping her eyes trained intensely on the racer's form. Shank's eyes finally rose up and met Yesss's.

"It ended up following him because a shady guy approached me and told me he was going to take it away, and that we would be safe if I let him. Then he. . ." she trailed off. "He told me that he was going to take it back to Litwak's."

Yesss's jaw slightly opened as she leaned back, and Maybe from his corner spit out his drink which he had been sipping. It was like they both had just been stabbed.

"Y-you were _what?_ " Yesss asked in a stammer, her eyes so wide they could've fallen out of her head.

"Approached by a shady guy." Shank repeated uneasily. "He told me that he specializes in taking care of viruses. He _wanted_ malware, and he said he returns viruses to whoever unleashes them on the web as revenge for their attempts to destroy everything. . . which, would mean he would be giving the virus back to Ralph. Viruses don't stop. I needed it to leave my friends and family alone, Yesss."

Yesss jumped up and slammed her hands on her desk, leaning dangerously close toward Shank's face.

"Are you serious? You heard what was being said on those messages. That the arcade just magically started to heat up. That means that guy went there and inadvertently _killed everyone with that virus_ somehow. You destroyed Vanellope's home by allowing a stranger to unleash a ton of malware there! You got innocent people killed!"

"What was I supposed to do?" Shank cried, not afraid to lean closer as well. "I couldn't let it keep coming back to Slaughter Race, which it _did_ and that was how the shady guy even got his hands on it."

"The Anti-Virus District exists Shank. There was absolutely no excuse for any of this to happen."

"It's not reliable, you _know that._ You _know_ what happened the last time a virus got out. The last time a virus infected the web and circulated around. I just wanted it _gone_." Shank said, who was just as furious as Yesss looked.

"Of course I know what happened! _I was there_!" the algorithm shouted at her.

"Then you of all people should understand why I couldn't risk it coming back to Slaughter Race!" Shank snapped, and Yesss felt herself falter.

She thought about it for a moment before she responded.

"I do understand, Shank. But that doesn't justify why you let whoever 'he' is take the virus. Especially when he told you his intentions." Yesss said, and Shank looked frustrated.

"I don't know why he did it, Yesss, I just know he wanted to take it there. I should've warned Ralph. I should've warned Vanellope. I should've done something more."

"Well, now we have a guy to find out since obviously he's the culprit of this mess!" Yesss snapped.

"I know that I screwed up. I just. . . I don't want V to think of me as some kind of monster because of it." She rolled her shoulders, and took a few steps back.

The shouting and anger seemed to fade.

On the other side of the room, Maybe let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Yesss turned to look at him, and he only looked back down at his clipboard, pretending like he wasn't in the room.

The algorithm sat back and sighed through her nose.

"Look," Yesss was kneading one palm into her temple, "if you would like to _attempt_ to make things right, then help me. We need to find out where the virus even came from, and we need to find out if everyone who lived at the arcade is still alive. Not to mention we now have to look for some creep who had intentions of killing everyone at the arcade. To right your wrong, you either come with me, or stay and sit in silence. Your choice."

Maybe nearly clicked his tongue in a 'mmhmm girl' type of way, but held himself back as he raised his clipboard in front of his face.

Shank's arms fell to her sides, and her fists opened as she looked at the ground. Yesss was waiting, staring her down. Shank's head finally rose up.

"I know a guy who can get us to the Dark Net. That must be where Ralph found the virus, and maybe we can track down the guy who caused all of this."

"Then lead the way." Yesss said, getting to her feet. Shank blinked, and the ends of her mouth upturned.

"You really do care about Vanellope, don't you?"

"Of course I do." Yesss responded softly, though her aggravation toward Shank was very much alive. "I care about her and Ralph more than you think. Now let's go. Maybe, you're back on duty!" she called over her shoulder.

Maybe only let out a groan as Shank and Yesss disappeared, and Shank got her phone out as she rang a number. A hologram popped up.

"You got the time to take a girl to the Dark Net, J.P.?"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N** : I'm so incredibly glad to see that people have taken an interest in this story!

Honestly, the excitement of seeing what reviews might come back to me after the posting of a new chapter is what's truly motivating me to get more chapters out! All of you are so sweet and I appreciate every single review you have given me. I thank you so much for the positive feedback. It means more to me than you could ever imagine. Thank you for following and leaving a favorite and reviewing. It truly keeps me on my toes about updating daily. :)

The reviews;

 **xPrettyLittleThing:** Thank you so much :) your reviews never fail to bring a smile to my face.

 **ColdSpike2475:** Thank you so much friend! Glad to make you laugh. But what can I say? I'm a sucker for angst. Shank has her reasons for being 'villainy' though. It'll become clear later. _Maybe_.

 **lalalei:** You'll find out soon! :P

 **Sun2:** My bad haha, but that was my goal!

 **Guest** **:** Even though I continue to torture the poor child, I'm saying the same thing.

* * *

 _Chapter 3_

* * *

"Glad you called, Shank. I'm the guy who can get you there in a jiffy. And by the way, no one calls me J.P., everyone calls me Spamley."

An almost too energetic Spamley was driving, talking to Shank and Yesss who were in the backseat of his vehicle. The algorithm rolled her eyes. She had one elbow propped up and was leaning her head on her hand, and she was gazing out the window, watching the Internet move at rapid speeds outside. Shank was sitting stiffly next to her, albeit looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Hey, by the way, not to be a nosy body, but what do you want to go there for? It's a shady place. Not really a fun time for anyone, ladies."

"Oh, we're _well_ aware of that, but I think we'll be able to take care of ourselves there just fine." Yesss cast an irritated glare at Shank, who pretended not to notice, balling her fists which were in her lap instead.

"We're looking for the origins of the virus that afflicted the web some months back. You know what I'm talking about, right?" Shank finally spoke up.

"The _Ralph_ Virus?" Spamley asked in a bewildered voice, his eyes popping a bit in the rear-view mirror. "Why in the world wide web do you want to find the origins of it?"

"It's a long story," Shank replied, "but it's very important that we find whoever created it and interrogate them."

"Lucky for you, I've got your guy practically on speed dial. I'll take you right to him. His name's Double Dan. Pretty shady guy. I live with his cousin."

"Right. . ." Yesss said irritably under her breath.

"And how do you know that he's our guy?" Shank asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, because Ralph asked me to take him to the Dark Net to—I mean, never mind. Look, all you have to know is that Double Dan's the guy behind that virus, and how I'm aware of that fact isn't necessary for you to know."

Yesss's eyelids were dropped halfway as she turned her head to Shank. The racer looked back at the algorithm, wearing a similar expression. Her frown creased more deeply across her face a moment later, and she snapped her head back forward as something seemed to click in her mind. Her eyes widened when it hit her.

"You _knew_ that Ralph was planning to let that thing out?" Shank barked. Spamley nearly flinched had he not been used to getting yelled at by Netizens on a daily basis, but only cleared his throat instead.

"I'm not going to answer that. Oh, and by the way, when we get there, don't look at Dan's little brother. Just a bit of hindsight for you."

They had arrived at their destination a second later. The car came to a halt and all three exited, but Shank wasn't so deterred by Spamley's attempt to change the subject. She was never one for violence, not even in the worst type of situations, but a little flame was boiling up inside of her that she couldn't put out.

"Little brother?" Yesss asked curiously, shutting the car door beside her as Spamley walked up. He was in the middle of shrugging.

"Oh yeah, he's very sensitive about—"

Quick as a flash, Shank's fist was gripped around the front of Spamley's shirt, lifting him off the ground. He was swept off his feet so fast that his hat had gone flying off. Yesss opened her mouth to speak, but judging by Shank's expression, she thought better to keep quiet.

"First you get a bunch of players in my game constantly lining up one by one trying to steal my car all for the sake of some money."

"Y-you know about that?" Spamley chuckled nervously.

"That's _besides_ the point. Then, after _all_ the trouble you've caused with my crew and us keeping on our toes constantly, you dare to help Ralph unleash a nasty virus into our game? After what happened _last_ _time_?" Shank spat.

"Listen to me, I tried to deter Ralph, but he was dead set on it! He never intended to hurt your game—"

"He nearly got V killed! Do you have any idea what would happen if I lost her? I wouldn't know what to do!" Shank pulled him a bit closer, and then their faces were nearly brushing. She was gritting her teeth, and if she exerted any more pressure onto them they surely would break soon. Something inside of her turned off, though, and she let him go a moment later. He slipped between her fingers and collapsed onto the ground, quickly gathering himself as he brushed his clothes off and his hat made its way back onto his head.

It was, of course, always uncharacteristic for Shank to get threatening with people. She was always looked at as a calm and collected woman, the leader of her game who, while seemed like she was capable of being cruel and mean, was typically friendly and sweet to everyone—but was tough when it was called for. She knew she wasn't in her right mind to be getting enraged at Spamley, but he did have a part in the whole thing, whether he liked that fact or not. Shank was friends with everyone, but admittedly she did know the spammer a bit better than others, which made her feel even more betrayed. But what truly infuriated her was his knowledge of what had happened the last time a virus swept through the Internet like an infection, and yet he still led Ralph to do what he did.

And it wasn't something as harmless as a Ralph virus either.

She put one hand on the side of her head, trying to wash away the bad memories that had resurfaced. Yesss was thinking about it too. Spamley, normally sprightly, now looked ashamed.

"I know that she means a lot to you." Spamley finally found the words to say, "I'm glad that nothing bad ended up happening. All that was intended was to slow down your game a little. No one getting hurt was the protocol that Ralph agreed to taking the virus under. But you. . . know how that turned out. Maybe I trusted Dan's judgement a little too much."

Shank's arms finally went to her sides, and she sighed through her nose.

"Maybe you did. Sorry for rough-housing you." She said it a little half-heartedly.

"I get it." Spamley replied, rubbing at one arm. "Don't worry about it."

A silence overtook the group. Yesss had listened carefully the entire time, but now her eyes were clouded over as her mind was shrouded in thought. Her and Shank hadn't always been close friends, but she knew almost everything about her, including some of her darkest memories. Though she had personally been a witness to one of the most life-changing events that had occurred in Shank's life.

Die outside your game, die for real. That's what Internet game characters had always been taught since day one. Netizens didn't have to worry, they weren't a part of the Internet. For others like Yesss, who ran websites and were always stuck in the Internet or had specific jobs, they had nothing to worry about either. It wasn't to say they were invincible, but they could go anywhere they pleased and would regenerate accordingly if anything bad happened to them, and they would end up back at their rightful websites. Since they were basically coding of the Internet, it didn't matter where they were when they had a 'death'—they were guaranteed to come back.

Because of course, there was no way Eboy went running around his site and never got accidentally squished by some products lying around. It just wasn't realistic. And a death for an Internet character was an extremely rare occurrence—it would have to take a lot to fully destroy a website or the coding to one.

The ones who were the most fragile were definitely the game characters. They were a part of their games, not just the Internet in general. They all knew that because they had seen—or rather in Spamley's case, heard about—first hand what happens if a game character die outside of their game.

The group's mind had all automatically jumped to the same thing, the same death that happened the last time a virus ripped its way through the Internet, and the silence only lasted for a few more moments before Shank finally broke it.

"Let's get a move on." She suggested.

Yesss had been biting gingerly on her pinkie while thinking of the dark subject that had come to mind, and even Spamley was a bit shaken up by it as he suppressed a shiver.

"Right." He cleared his throat, and looked up at Yesss, motioning for her to follow him with his hand. She wordlessly came up beside him as he led the way, while Shank trailed along silently in the back. Her hands were shoved in her pockets, and her dark eyes were keeping to the ground.

"It still is the most uncomfortable thing to talk about." Spamley said, which only Yesss heard.

"Of course it is," she responded just as quietly, "but I must admit I'm surprised you know about it even though you weren't there."

"The whole Internet knows about it, Boss Lady. It was huge news across the whole web." Spamley pointed out. Yesss looked over her shoulder to see Shank still hunched over. The look on her face gave away quickly that she was still lost in thought.

"I know. Don't remind me." Yesss responded when she turned her head forward again, and she tugged on the sleeves to her snazzy coat uneasily.

"I was surprised you and Shank are still friends, actually, since, well, you know. . ." Spamley's eyes flitted away uncomfortably, and Yesss felt her body tense up.

"Since I know _what_?"

"Since her sweetie worked under you and left Slaughter Race to pursue the BuzzzTube lifestyle."

Yesss opened her mouth to retort, but quickly cinched her jaw shut in aggravation. As if she hadn't thought about that for countless hours, for days, ever since the accident happened, and he had to remind her about it.

Yes, it was true that Shank had not been single once upon a time, and yes, it was also true that her significant other had no desire of, well. . . being in Slaughter Race. Yesss didn't mind having another friend helping her out at the headquarters. It even got busy for her and Maybe at times—any other help was welcomed, plus Shank had been dating a complete sweetheart, so that made it all the better.

The reason Yesss and Shank ever even met was because the 'desire to pursue the Buzzztube Lifestyle,' as Spamley had put it, was something Shank's partner had deep inside. BuzzzTube was open before Slaughter Race, and when Slaughter Race went down for its first ever update, practically the entire game emptied, and the residence of the game flooded to every website they could get their hands on to explore. It was by chance that Shank's partner had chosen to explore BuzzzTube and was entirely enamored by it. Of course, Shank was not happy to hear that her fellow racer and lover wanted to leave the game and go work at BuzzzTube instead because it had become 'a life goal.' As a result, Shank had despised BuzzzTube and everything about it. Yesss knew Shank hated her during those times, too, but they never actually addressed it—but it haunted Yesss at times, whether she liked that fact or not.

Before Yesss could keep thinking about the past, she realized they were at their destination. The algorithm's eyes refocused just in time to see an approaching elevator. The thing was already looking quite dodgy, dinged up and dark inside. Yesss's nose wrinkled in disdain.

"I give you the Dark Net." Spamley motioned with his hands, a smile coming onto his face as his teeth appeared.

"That's an _elevator_." Yesss crossed her arms and scoffed. Spamley paused and blinked, but his smile returned just as bright as the first time.

"Good observation," Spamley was unfazed by her attitude, "but it's an elevator that'll take us to your desired destination."

Shank came up right between them. She turned her head to Yesss, who only shrugged uncomfortably. The racer turned her head back toward the elevator a moment later.

"I'm surprised Ralph came here," Shank admitted, "it doesn't seem like his type of place."

"It's no one's type of place besides creeps. I hate it myself." Spamley said.

Upon hearing Ralph's name, Yesss felt a twisting feeling in her stomach. She was worried about both Vanellope and her over-sized baby.

"You two _sure_ you wanna go down there? It can be a bit dangerous." Spamley warned for the last time.

Shank's face had a worrisome look to it. Her dark eyes revealed stress and uneasiness. Yesss had never been down there, so she was a little uncomfortable, too, but she would regenerate right back to her website if anything was to go wrong. It was Shank who was more fragile, and she wasn't going to let anything happen to her. The algorithm sighed through her nose and closed her eyes for a moment, before she found one of her hands gripping onto Shank's.

The racer was slightly taken aback by this, and she looked at Yesss uncertainly.

"We'll be fine. We're going to get in there, get the info we need, then get out. We're gonna fix everything and find Vanellope's family. Right?" she squeezed Shank's hand a little.

Shank looked down, and then back up. A little shimmer of hope had entered her eyes, and a small smile crossed her lips.

"Right. Let's go."

The three boarded the elevator, and were quiet during the entire descending, unaware of what they would come across.

* * *

Vanellope's eyes hadn't opened yet, but she was awake.

As she stirred a bit, she realized that one, she was warm, and two, she was the most comfortable she'd been in ages. She couldn't actually remember the last time she had a full night's rest since Slaughter Race never took breaks like there had been back at Game Central Station. Vanellope long ago grew bored with such long intervals of time spent doing nothing, but with the twenty-four seven aspect of Slaughter Race, she yearned for that free time back occasionally. There was barely any time to relax.

So, she was a bit confused as to why she was allowed to sleep for so long.

And then, everything hit her like a punch to the face. She quickly scrambled for her phone to make sure it was still there—Yesss had placed it back in there after she had dropped it—and felt relief when the familiar cold surface met her fingertips. She looked around and saw that she wasn't in her bedroom in Slaughter Race. Instead, she was laying on a beanbag and was tucked under a blanket, and that's when she knew where she was: the Disney Princess Lounge.

Vanellope turned over as she pulled her phone out, opening it up and instantly going to her inbox. She didn't want to watch the horrible, heartbreaking messages she'd received in what could have been Ralph's final moments. So instead, she scrolled down to her first message. Her eyes, usually bright, had dulled down, and although she felt well rested, she looked exhausted with dark circles that had formed ever so slightly beneath her lids.

She watched Ralph pop up on her screen and he began to talk. There was a moment where she wasn't even listening, just watching. Her mouth tremored slightly when she felt her tears pricking at her eyes. And the feeling only grew worse when Calhoun and Felix appeared.

This was, quite literally, the last surviving video she had of those two, and that made her sick to her stomach. She just tried to push down the nauseating feeling that dared to consume her as she watched them smile and talk to her.

 _"We love you kiddo!"_

 _"Don't forget it soldier."_

 _"Bye Vanellope."_

As the hologram shut off, there was an emptiness that settled inside of the young girl. She clung onto her phone and shut her eyes, tears stinging the corners of her eyes as she let out a small sob.

 _I should've said goodbye to them. I should've tried to make an effort to see them more,_ she thought to herself, a glitch running through her code as she held her phone to her chest as if, if she dare let it go, it would crumble into a million pieces and she would never be able to see her family again. The negative thoughts of her bad choices and decisions started to haunt her as she ponder more and more.

Was it the biggest mistake _ever_ to go to Slaughter Race and leave everyone behind? Were the racers okay? Were _any_ of them. . . actually okay? A part of her mind was refusing the thought of them all being gone, she was denying it vehemently. Death wasn't something that frequented in the arcade. She'd seen a few background characters bite the dust in freak accidents at Game Central Station. No matter the size or role of the character, those were greatly mourned losses. And as Vanellope thought back to the video that Ralph had sent talking about Fix-It Felix Jr.'s shut down, she could already picture how devastating it had been for everyone when some of the residents were lost in the unplugging.

It made her feel sniffly again to even picture how everything played out after that. Ralph would be angry at himself without having the capability to do more. Felix would have been looking lost, the mourning clear in his face, his hat wrung between his hands. Pure devastation being shared between the two, the most important components of the game, being unable to salvage their home and some its residency.

And to think about her own game being unplugged. She already saw the horrified and forlorn looks on the faces of her fellow racers popping into her mind. She hadn't even ever said goodbye to them. What a _horrible_ president she was. The thoughts swirling in her mind only grew darker and darker as she imagined everything she knew going up in smoke.

Vanellope's head snapped up as a door creaked open, a silent gasp escaping her as she put her phone away back into her hoodie pocket. A few pairs of eyes were watching her through the crevice of the door, and there was some hushed murmurs. A moment passed, and the door opened up completely.

She quickly wiped away her formulating tears against the sleeve of her hoodie, not wanting to embarrass herself further. She didn't even have the heart to face them, not after knowing they had all seen her in her worst state. Vanellope began to hope it wouldn't be Elsa or Jasmine to come through, especially since they had been the ones to see her at her lowest point on the ride to the lounge.

Much to her dismay, it was Elsa, Anna not far behind her, and was that Rapunzel, too? Vanellope realized she was most likely about to get a consoling, which was something she wasn't about to particularly enjoy. She could tell by the solemn look on their faces, though, that they had much to say.

"Good morning, Vanellope," Rapunzel started in a sweet voice, the edges of her mouth lifting into a small smile but that sad note in her eyes never fading, "did you sleep well?"

The racer only nodded.

"Could we sit with you?" Elsa asked, to which Vanellope only nodded again.

The sisters and lost princess had never seen her so quiet. It was truly unheard of to see her this silent, but given the circumstances, there was no confusion as to why she was that way.

The three took a seat on the beanbag—ten times too large for Vanellope, so it easily fit all three of them—both sisters taking a place on either side of her, while Rapunzel sat in front of her.

There was a silence, until Vanellope realized she should probably say something. She leaned back, and stared up at the ceiling, "You guys don't have to do this, you know. I. . . deserve this."

She only half meant what she said. She had previously wondered why it all happened to her, but she had let them get away from her, and now she had to reap what she had sewn. That was the way she was looking at it.

"No one deserves this." Elsa said, placing a hand on her knee, which was still covered in a warm blanket. "You did nothing wrong, Vanellope. Please don't believe that you did."

"But I let them get away. I neglected all of them, and now they're all gone, and I can't do anything about it now. This is karma." Vanellope said quietly.

"When we lost Mom and Dad. . . we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Elsa isolated herself, and I tried to grieve with everyone else." Anna started. "Both of us wondered why it happened, what we could've done to prevent it, but. . . we couldn't do anything."

"You can't blame yourself for what happened. I thought it to be a good idea to blame myself for never leaving that tower, but it was all I had ever known. It just doesn't work, Vanellope. We can't see into the future." Rapunzel added, and Vanellope's large eyes looked up at her as their words processed in her mind.

"But how do you know how I feel?" she asked, looking around at each of them. "I mean, you've told me you never actually met your parents. You've never even been in a tower."

That much was true. It was a phenomenon that most Internet residents referred to as 'phantom memories.' They were programmed with the knowledge of their past—particularly, any events that were played out in movies they appeared in—though they had never actually occurred. To be in a movie was one thing, but to live on the Internet was a separate thing entirely, and therefore they had never met the majority of people they had memories of. And that went for all of the girls at the end of the day.

"Do you remember when you were explaining how everything in your game got fixed?" Anna asked, and Vanellope nodded. "And you talked about your friend Calhoun, remember? About her backstory?"

"She never experienced any of that either." Elsa broke the ice lightly. "But it still felt all very real to her, didn't it?"

Vanellope felt a little stunned at this. She hadn't thought about it, and she stared in surprise.

"Yeah. . . I never actually thought about that." Vanellope admitted.

"So, we all know how you feel. We've all been through different types of pain, but. . . just know that it's okay to feel hurt. You don't have to hide it." Vanellope almost felt violated at Rapunzel's words.

"I'm not trying to hide it." Vanellope weakly argued back, averting her eyes away. "I'm fine now, okay?" A little glitch ran through her code as she continued, "You three don't have to sit here and lecture me about how pain works and how to do deal with it like I'm some kinda cry baby. I was alone for years, and I dealt with _that_ pain just fine. And now I'm. . . alone. . . again. . ." she glitched again as she found it difficult to choke back her emotions.

The three older girls seemed to share that same twinge in their hearts to see their little friend this way.

"Vanellope." Rapunzel said in a stern voice, though still gentle, "Grief comes in all shapes and sizes. It is not something to be ashamed of. You are allowed to be sad and vulnerable. We aren't going to judge you. We're here _for_ you, not to be against you. You are _not_ alone. Okay?"

Vanellope's coding split apart once more at these words, and once her glitch was over, her eyes were wide, and her mouth was slightly agape. She had been so used to hiding how she felt. The racers, people who were supposed to be her friends, stomping all over her for years and treating her like dirt—no, _everyone_ in that game treating her like dirt for years for being a glitch had been the worst time of her life. But it was a time where she learned that vulnerability wasn't a good thing. That she had to put up a strong front and never show weakness unless she was with those she knew she could be vulnerable around—like Ralph, Felix and Calhoun. To hear some confirmation that it was okay to show her feelings and not be made fun of or laughed at, though, shocked her.

She snapped out of her thoughts as her eyes began to water and her mouth was strung into a frown despite her efforts to make a smile. "O-okay." Vanellope conceded. A garbled sob came out of her as she glitched once more, and Anna's arms wrapped around her and enveloped her with a warmth, now pulling the girl into her lap.

"Things are going to be okay." Elsa said softly, stroking the girl's hair tenderly. It was more of a promise than a wish. Vanellope didn't actually believe things could be okay.

Not after Shank lied to her and cost her the opportunity to save her friends. Not after everything she knew was gone. It hurt too much. She felt like she didn't belong anywhere—it was a horrible feeling that wrapped around her heart and threatened to constrain it with how much those thoughts hurt her.

She was not left unattended by the three girls who tended to her and made sure she was comfortable as her tears, now much calmer than the ones she had shed during her initial mental breakdown, dripped slowly down her reddened cheeks as she wished deeply inside of her heart that she could get just one second back with everyone she was missing. She just wanted to be reunited with them, even if it was an impossibility.

Little did she know, elsewhere there was a plethora of nonexistent missed calls that never went through to her phone due to no cell service, desperate to get a hold of her.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Hey guys!

Thank you so much for being so patient in me getting more chapters out. Sometimes I kind of just have bursts of random creativity, whereas other times, I'll be stuck in a slump and not know where to go (which can last for a pretty long time unfortunately). Anyhow. . . since this story was actually just meant to be a one-shot, and not very long, I'm afraid to say that this will most likely wrap up in the next few chapters. I'm kind of used to writing stories that are 100k+ words, so this is a bit on the abnormal side for me, but that's okay.

I hope that you will enjoy this chapter just as much as I enjoyed writing it and that it lives up to your expectations! This was my favorite chapter to write so far.

Reviews;

 **lalalei:** I wonder too! And probably not, you'll see ;) haha.

 **Agent BM:** Thankfully you don't have to wait any longer :)

 **xPrettyLittleThing:** Thank you so much, you're so sweet. I really appreciate your support.

 **Romantic sapp:** Ahhh your review honestly made me smile so much! Thank you so much Admiral Underpants.

 **pinksakura271:** Honestly, it wasn't my intention at all to rule out that ship haha. I personally don't ship Vanellope with anyone, but Rancis would probably be my first choice to be paired with her. I definitely agree that RBTI ended in a horrible way. I was absolutely heartbroken. And, I entirely agree that Vanellope went Turbo. See, the thing is, people try to justify it by saying that she isn't actually _taking over_ Slaughter Race. Alright, fair point... but what a bunch of people then fail to realize is that in the first movie, Ralph clearly wasn't trying to take over Hero's Duty or Sugar Rush when he was also considered to go Turbo. So going Turbo can mean just leaving your game—it has nothing to do with taking over, and therefore, she _did_ go Turbo. Case closed. There might be plot holes in RBTI but I still love it regardless, haha.

I tried to not make Shank into a _total_ villain in this story, because she's not. She just made a huge mistake haha. And ah, my two top favorites? That's really just such a tough choice because I love Snow White, Mulan, Moana, Belle and Anna, but I love Elsa and Rapunzel to death. Elsa the most, for sure.

 **SolarFlare579:** You don't even know how happy but also sad this made me! Don't cry :( but I'm also honored that someone was able to feel such emotion at my writing.

 **ColdSpike2475:** Ouch is definitely the word to describe it. Thank you so much for your compliments, friend. :)

* * *

 _Chapter 4_

* * *

"This place is _nasty_."

To say that Yesss was totally taken aback by the Dark Net was an understatement. Then again, so was Shank, but Yesss was disturbed in a totally different way.

"Look at this. No fashion icons. No funny videos. This place is not only dreary, but it's _grimy_ , too. So dirty! _Oh_ , baby girl, that is _not_ a cute look." She paused and pointed at a female Netizen, donned in a black, shady looking outfit, her face masked in shadows as she walked by.

The algorithm was over-analyzing the entire thing, while the racer only smirked as she pulled up her hood on her jacket to try and blend in with the crowd.

"I think you need to come to my game once in a while and get messy." She said, and Yesss let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Absolutely. . . _not_. I walked into your game for five seconds once, and nearly got my head ripped off by a shark. Not fun, I hate to inform you." Yesss exaggerated, puckering her mouth as she put a hand on her hip.

"You'd be happy to know her." Shank shrugged.

"Girl, are you saying you're friends with a _shark_? If you record yourself talking to it and posted it to BuzzzTube, I can assure you half the viewers would be fearing for your life and the other half would be calling you crazy."

Shank was about to retort, when a moment later something came rushing out of the alley way beside them and scurried in front of them, startling the two women half to death. A huge, circular metal body being held up on eight legs and looking around with various eyes sped past them after a second of exposure to the dim light overhead, and the two didn't say a word, but only loudly gasped at the same time.

"Can you two quiet it down?" Spamley snapped, unfazed by whatever that thing had been that came in and out of their line of vision in an instant. "You want to lay low in these parts. _Oh hey_! Look at that!" his voice got louder than both the women's as Spamley approached the front of an opening to a website.

The girls kept hot on his trail as he led them, a pep in his step now as he grew exceedingly more excited. "I love this place. This is where you can buy movies before they come out on DVD. Pretty neat, right?" he grinned over his shoulder.

"Seems pretty _illegal_ to me." Yesss crossed her arms.

"Exactly! And see? Free music by the boat load!" he pointed to the next-door site.

" _What_? Why would _anyone_ download music from here?" she demanded. "You can get all this music for free _easily_ on BuzzzTube!"

"Nobody wants to watch the ads." Shank reasoned with a shrug, and Yesss looked taken aback. She pursed her lips before she responded.

"Look, I'm not supposed to say this, but ad-block exists for a reason. Okay?" the algorithm huffed.

"Alright you two, we're getting into shadier territory here, so keep on your toes." Spamley warned as he set off again.

Yesss and Shank were looking all over and around, surveying the users. Shank was used to seeing players who moved in goofy fashions with their ping blowing up through the roof, while Yesss was used to seeing a bunch of smiling faces glued to funny videos. To see Netizens act nearly lifeless and suspicious as all get out as they made their ways around this Dark Net was unsettling to them both.

A bit more time passed by before Yesss's attention was caught by one website in particular.

"What the heck is that?" Yesss pointed, raising a brow.

The sign plastered against the door read _King Malware's Mighty Virus Service_. A little crown was imprinted just beneath it. While it seemed to be a professional attempt at a business, the door was rickety and worn looking, as was the rest of the exterior of the business. It included a couple of grey, dying bushes tucked beneath the door on either side of the small stoop which was only one step off of the ground. A big **CLOSED** sign was clearly seen on the front.

"I don't know. Haven't seen this one before, though it's been a bit since I've come down here. It must be new. Pretty snazzy title though, right?" Spamley asked over his shoulder as he started to walk away. Yesss followed, arguing that nothing in the Dark Net was snazzy whatsoever, while Shank stared lost in thought.

There was something about that title that felt awfully familiar in such a strange way that she couldn't place her finger on. For a moment her eyes wandered across the words a few more times, until she swore she could hear something behind the door—a rustling, like something was in there moving around, which was bizarre considering it was supposedly closed, and she felt taken aback. She hesitantly started to reach forward to open the door, when she was snapped out of her trance.

"Hey! Shank, you coming, or not?" Yesss called to her, and she immediately retracted her hand. All silence was coming from the other end of the door now, and she heaved a sigh through her nose. Maybe she had only imagined hearing noise coming from the other side. A moment later, she was back next to Yesss and Spamley.

"Sorry, I got distracted." She turned her head back only for a brief moment, trying to take a mental note of where that 'business' was. "I just got a weird feeling."

"What kinda feeling?" Spamley asked curiously.

"I'm not sure." Shank answered, feeling more troubled the further they got away. "By the way," she glanced at Yesss, "keep an eye out for the shady guy who let the virus out into the arcade. He might live here."

"Whoa!" Spamley jumped in front of the racer, placing up his hands in front of him and stopping her in her tracks immediately. "What did you just say? What happened now?" His eyes grew wide.

The two women realized they had never actually told Spamley their reasoning for coming down into the darkest pits of the web. As they continued on their walk, they filled him in. The entire time his face was differently contorted—with shock, sadness, disbelief, and even some anger at times.

"You know what? I didn't think I was that emotionally attached to ol' Ralphie until you told me about that just now." Spamley said, a depressed look on his face.

"That's why it's important we find this guy. . . Triple Tyler, was it?" Yesss asked.

"Double Dan. Call him Triple Tyler and you'll never see the light of day again." Spamley answered. "Speaking of Double Dan, we've arrived."

They were faced with another elevator that would take them down to, supposedly, this suspicious Double Dan character's place. They got into the elevator together and while it was on its way down, Spamley gave them one other reminder.

"Don't look at his little brother. It's extremely important you remember that."

As they left the elevator, a wave of uneasiness seemed to come upon all three of them. The room they walked into opened up into a wider area, but the whole thing was fairly dark and dismal. Glass jars filled with unknown liquids were clearly visible around the room, as though it was a scientist's lab. Some were stacked on top of each other while others were strewn about on the ground in a messy fashion, laying on their sides.

Yesss leaned forward and inspected one that was leaning up against a wall, a weird creature floating around inside of the jar she was focused on. Her eyes narrowed as she squinted, attempting to make out what that thing swimming around could be. One of her manicured nails unconsciously reached forward to tap the container when a fast movement that reflected in the glass caught her attention, and she froze. She straightened, and turned around just in time to see a big, slithering blob prowling up to her.

There was no time for her to be shocked—her wrist was in the grip of the blob's fist, and as she slowly looked up, she realized that this lump of skin had a face. Yesss was taking it all in, when in her peripherals she could see a second face. She didn't dare break eye contact, although she had to say she was oddly tempted to look for some unknown reason.

"No touching the products, sweetheart." He, who Yesss had assumed was Double Dan by now, gave a ghastly sneer at her.

"Who do you think you're calling 'sweetheart?'" Yesss's shocked expression started to morph into one of anger and disgust.

"Obviously you," the flesh-colored creature spat, his lips drawing back to expose gritted teeth.

"Hey! Let her go." Shank snapped, who was now in a stance that meant she wasn't messing around, with her legs set apart and her arms were spread out, one of her palms wide open while the other one was a fist. The creature's eyes darted over to her. Shank had a dark look on her face as from up her sleeve, a piece of metal with a thin, long sharpened end and a makeshift handle fell down and into her open hand, which she whipped out. Double Dan's eyebrows raised, but otherwise, he was unaffected by the threat. Yesss wasn't going to question the fact that Shank had been carrying, well, a shank on her.

"Now, now, none of this violent stuff!" Spamley gave one of his signature nervous laughs as he put a hand up to signal Shank to back off, looking a hundred degrees hotter as he began to sweat. "This is just a big misunderstand—"

" _You_!" Double Dan shouted as Spamley walked into view, and let go of Yesss as she stumbled back. Though he was massive, he could get around at incredible speed, and in a flash Spamley was now the one in his grasp, being quickly torn upward and off his feet by his shirt.

Shank had rushed to the algorithm's side, her weapon still in hand.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" she asked, and took Yesss's hand into her own to examine her wrist.

"I'm fine," Yesss reassured. "But we're about to lose our tour guide."

Shank's head spun around as she surveyed the scene.

"I know that you're unhappy, but I have good news!" Spamley laughed uneasily as Double Dan kept a tight grip around his collar, "It's funny. You're going to laugh, I swear. That virus you gave Ralph and I—"

"Was never returned. Nearly destroyed the Internet. Gave me a bad name. Do you take me as a joke?" the blob roared at him.

"N-no!" Spamley stammered. "To be fair, you didn't ever tell us to actually bring it back, _but_ —"

"I had assumed you weren't that stupid to think the virus would magically disappear." Double Dan snapped at him.

"I know how it looks, alright? But everything's fine now."

"It isn't exactly fine, though your tiny brain fails to comprehend that fact." Double Dan barked. "You dare to show your face here again after what you did?"

"Uh, excuse me, Mr. Blobman!" Yesss broke through the bickering, and two heads turned toward her as she pointed at Double Dan. "I don't know you, but don't you make viruses for a reason? To, you know, _break_ the Internet?" she asked, raising a brow.

"That's the reputation this fool has given me." Double Dan's lips were drawn back as he slowly looked back at Spamley, who was limp in his hold, looking like he wanted nothing more than to disappear into thin air. "That virus should never had had the opportunity to wreak havoc like it did, but it was given the opportunity to because of this idiot and his moronic friend." He spat, and Spamley shrunk as much as he could.

"That was my game your virus tampered with, you know." Shank's fists were balled, her knuckles already white. "You nearly killed my friend with that thing."

" _I_ didn't do anything. All I did was give that bumbling idiot a virus, told him how it worked, and I warned him of the possible consequences of his actions. Sorry about your friend, but that's not on me, I'm afraid."

"Alright, then. Why do you even make viruses if you don't want a reputation for almost destroying the Internet?" the racer demanded.

"People have their reasons for wanting viruses. I only provide, and make a living off of it. And besides, it's fun." Double Dan answered with a sneer. "You can keep a virus as a pet if you know how to control it—they aren't that hard to control, by the way. Some morons just don't know how they work, and things can get a little out of hand once in a while. But they do not have the power to destroy the whole Internet. That Ralph virus I heard so much about was the closest we've ever come to an Internet wipe-out."

"Yeah? A little out of hand?" Shank was getting angry now, but Yesss was already ahead of her.

"That 'pet' of yours ate up an entire arcade." The BuzzzTube representative snapped.

"And _that_ is an example of what happens when a virus is left unattended by its overseer." Double Dan shrugged.

"You have no remorse?" Yesss demanded. Her blue face was twisted into a scowl as she thought about Ralph and Vanellope—it was only making her more angered, and she was tempted to sock the big blob right in the face.

"I didn't do it. So why should I? The virus only did as intended." Double Dan squinted.

"It still was _your_ virus." Shank reasoned. "And _put him down_!" her voice got louder as she motioned to Spamley. He looked so anxiety-ridden it seemed like he might melt any second now.

Double Dan gave one last look at him before dropping him to the ground. The blob started to slither away behind a desk that was at the opposite end of the room.

The girls weren't done with giving their flack, however, as they approached it aggressively, while Spamley only readjusted his hat and shivered a little.

"Your virus is responsible for the death of numerous video game characters." Yesss started, her voice dropping an octave as she got serious, "I don't think you want that on your reputation, do you? You think you're safe here, but there's Cyber Police for a reason."

Double Dan only scoffed, "The Cyber Police?"

"Yeah, that's right. They're on speed dial, and I have no problem calling them right now since you're a murderer." Yesss's frown deepened, and she was staring intensely. "You think you're so secretive down here making your nasty viruses and ruining people's lives, but wait til they get their hands on you, someone who has been making plenty of trouble for the longest time. They'll come get you and you'll never make another one of your _cute, precious_ little viruses again. Because you _and_ your little buddies who think it's funny to sell illegal movies _AND_ free music will be behind bars!"

This was a threat that seemed to get to the virus creator, who was staring with a frown. The Cyber Police didn't exactly know much about the Dark Net, but if they could get their hands on someone who was causing trouble and was behind something as horrible as an entire building burning down and numerous characters succumbing to their deaths, they would want to catch the culprit for sure, since it was a huge crime and was a potential threat to other websites and places on the Internet.

"You know, DeeDee, you're the type of person I can't stand. You had a hand in ruining a little girl's life. Her whole family died because of you giving Ralph that virus, and yet you're here not owning up to any of it. You're the only one who that virus can be traced back to, and when I inform the authorities about what happened, and you rush to pack up all your little pets and get out of here, where do you plan on going? That's right, _nowhere_ , because this is the only place you have to go. Looks like you're kinda in backed into a corner, aren't you? So I suggest that you cooperate and change your gross attitude into a nice one, as soon as possible if you want to keep your job here and stay away from a prison cell."

Satisfied with herself, the algorithm shifted on her feet and placed a hand on her hip, not daring to look away now as she huffed. Most of her courageous and threatening speech had come from a deep place in her heart where she had been storing her built up anger for a while now, and she felt better to get all of that off of her chest.

Double Dan's expression changed considerably. He was clearly contemplating his next move. Meanwhile, Spamley's jaw was dropped at Yesss's fearless attitude that had started to shine through, while Shank nodded approvingly.

"First of all, I never want you to call me ' _DeeDee_ ' again. Second, are you looking at my little brother?" Double Dan's eyes whipped over at Spamley, who vigorously shook his head 'no.' While he was distracted, both Shank and Yesss were able to catch a glimpse at the small face for a brief moment. Both of them grimaced internally before looking away from it—Yesss back at the Dark Net resident's actual face, while Shank directed her eyes to the ground as she crossed her arms.

Double Dan sighed before he looked back at Yesss, "Third of all, I already apologized that your friend was effected by Ralph's choice. It's worth mentioning I also hired someone to go recover the virus, so nothing like that should have happened. . . unless he failed."

Shank's eyes widened slightly, and they rose up to meet his.

"Who did you hire?" she asked immediately.

"Does it matter?" Double Dan's eyelids fell halfway.

"Yes!" Shank exclaimed before repeating herself, "Who did you hire?"

"Not sure of his actual name. No one goes by their real names around here. But, King Malware is anyone's go-to if they want a virus recovered or placed somewhere discreetly."

"King Malware." Shank tasted the name uneasily in her mouth when she remembered the shady looking place they had passed earlier, before she went back to her interrogation. "You sent him after the virus that Ralph was given?"

"This was some months after the Ralph virus initially hit, you have to realize that. I thought the virus bit the dust at the Anti-Virus District because there didn't appear to be any insecurities being messed with anywhere, but then a small website began to complain that they were getting slowed down and becoming glitchy and knew right away it was my virus. I sent Malware after it because despite it being dormant for a while, it started up again to do more damage. He did not find it from what I know." Double Dan explained.

"No. He _did_ find it." Shank said, her tone growing more serious. "He came right into my game, had it in his hand and told me he found it nearby, and asked me if I was okay with taking it away. He told me he would return it to the owner, to whoever let it out on the Internet." She recounted it in her memory.

"It never was returned to me. I promised him pay if he brought it back." Double Dan frowned.

"Exactly. That's because he sent it after Ralph instead, because apparently he told me he was headed to Litwak's, where Ralph lives." Shank's own frown formed, and she began to think.

"But why? If he was getting paid, what would he gain out of sending it after Ralph and risking his reputation as the virus catcher?" Yesss asked.

There was no answer, because no one knew.

"Your virus. . . does it have any other function other than corrupting things?" Shank questioned.

"It's not necessarily corrupting anything. It finds insecurities within a code, plays with it to make things unstable, but that's about all it does." Double Dan answered.

Shank started thinking so hard she thought her brain would explode. Yesss was scheming, too, to attempt any sort of logical answer.

"Oh my God." Spamley said out of nowhere, clearly experiencing some sort of epiphany, "He wanted to mess with the arcade games."

That hit all of them, and a silence took over all four—well, five if you were counting Little Dan. They began to look around at each other. Shank was staring past them all, and started to shake her head. But Spamley knew what she was thinking—that she couldn't believe it, so he spoke up again.

"Think about it. Old arcade games probably have a lot of flaws, right? No coding can be perfect. There always has to be _something_ wrong with it, even if it doesn't show."

"That's right. . . they could have overheated because of the virus rampaging around. . . and that could have been what caused the fire." Yesss's eyes widened. "Is that possible?" she looked at Double Dan.

"It could be possible." He shrugged. "I'm a professional at making viruses for the _web_ , not for an arcade, though. Keep that in mind."

"I don't understand why he would want to mess with the arcade. . ." The racer said, her fingers now digging into her temples.

"There's no way to find out until we identify him. What did he look like?" Yesss asked.

"I'm not sure. . . he was hooded, I only got to see his face for a split second. It was strange, though." Shank began to recount the memory in her mind as she started to describe him as best she could.

 _"What?" Shank had asked in surprise to the stranger who was standing right at the entrance of her game. He was cloaked, and half her height, and the shade of the dark hood covering his head was casting shadows on his face, keeping it from her view._

 _One arm was sticking out, clothed in white. For a brief moment, there was some red pixelation that ran up and down the arm and through the rest of the body, but Shank hardly paid attention to that as her eyes kept glued to the virus that was squirming around in his tight fist, one freaky eye looking around as black fumes came off of it._

 _"I said that I'll be more than happy to take this one far, far away from your game." The shady figure repeated. "I specialize in what you would call virus relocation," there was a chuckle, "so I will gladly take this back to the one who let it out on your game."_

 _"But why?" Shank asked, frowning, "What's the purpose? The point? The motivation?"_

 _The tone grew darker from the stranger, and it almost came out as a hiss as he said, "I doubt you want to see this thing inside your game again."_

 _Shank thought about it for a moment, and she only slowly nodded. "You're right. I just want that thing gone and away from my friends."_

 _"Excellent." The voice responded with an eerie laugh of delight. "One virus making a stop at Game Central Station."_

 _"Wait a second." Shank said uneasily, but the figure had already turned around and was shuffling away. That name was familiar to her only because Vanellope had told her loads about the arcade. "You're going to take it back to Ralph's home?" she quickly connected the dots._

 _"Of course!" the respond was just as cheery sounding. "That's karma for trying to destroy your game, isn't it?"_

 _"I. . . yes, but I don't want anyone to get hurt." Shank said sternly, and for a moment another strange flash of crimson pixels moved through the figure's form, and the head slowly turned around._

 _"What do you take me for? I'm a professional! I'll hand the virus right to him. I'm only returning it to him." he laughed, but it trailed off into silence a moment later as he looked up and saw the unconvinced look on her face. "No one will get hurt. Trust me."_

 _Shank hesitated for a moment as her confusion returned. "But how do you know Ralph?" she asked curiously._

 _Two glowing eyes and yellowed teeth against a ghostly background of a face were smiling at her. "He's an old friend of mine. I'm sure he'll be happy to see this given back to him." Without another word, he looked forward again and disappeared in a hurry._

Shank felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of her as a moment later, she came out of her flashback. Things started to make sense as she stumbled slightly, leaning forward as she put one hand out against the desk in front of her to keep her balanced.

"Are you okay, Shank? You said he was hooded, and then you just stopped." Yesss said uneasily, putting one hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"I know who our guy is." She finally forced out just above a whisper, taking in a breath she didn't realize she needed.

"What'd you say?" Spamley asked.

"I know who our guy is!" she repeated, more louder and with more conviction. "It was Malware, that's who took the virus. That's who set it out on the arcade. That's who's responsible for all of this, but there's something more to this. V has told me about someone, someone who matches the same description as Malware's face. And he's someone who V told me was 'never to be seen again.'"

"Sorry, but who is he?" Yesss cocked her head.

"Give me your phone!" Shank said eagerly, to which Yesss easily complied. All of them watched as she went to the search engine and went looking for imagery. They would find out in a moment just exactly what that was she was trying to find. "Look, you see? That's him!" she said, pointing with one finger at an image that had come up depicting an old arcade game console.

"So this is the guy who approached you?" Yesss asked with a frown. "Eww. He's freaky looking."

"Yeah. Vanellope told me all about this guy. He's a piece of work. There's no time to explain. We have to go _right_ now."

"Go where?" Spamley was still lost as Shank handed Yesss's phone back to her.

"King Malware's place, obviously!" she said.

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Spamley demanded. Shank opened her mouth to retort, but just closed it.

"Let's go! And you have got a lot of explaining to do on this guy!" Yesss shouted, being the first to run toward the elevator. Spamley and Shank gave one last look at each other before they nodded and ran after her.

Silence prevailed in Double Dan's lair once more, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Finally, they're gone."

"Oh! And if you ever let a virus be put into Shank's game again, I promise I'm gonna sick the cops on you, DeeDee!" Yesss's voice echoed one last time as she poked her head around the corner, and then disappeared for good.

* * *

Shank, Spamley and Yesss tore through the underground of the Dark Net as fast as they could. They were a sight for sore eyes running past shady business after business. Some in the darkness turned to watch them as they went, but never blinked twice at the strange trio.

As they turned a corner, Spamley looked down, and then back up at Yesss.

"How are you running in heels, Boss Lady?" he asked between breaths.

Yesss simpered, "I'm talented."

It wasn't long before they arrived at their destination. Shank was the first at the door as she rolled up her sleeves and wiped some hair out of her face, taking in a breath before her knuckles were banging on the door. All of them had fully recovered, and by the time Shank had knocked the third time, her patience had worn out.

"We know you're in there, so open up!" she snapped, and slammed her fist on the door much more aggressively this time, resulting in a _bam_ so loud that none of them noticed the distinct sound of a camera taking a picture.

"Maybe we should try to be _friends_ with him, and not make him angry?" Spamley suggested with an uncertain grin, his eyes darting back and forth between the two women.

Shank's head whipped around and her hair flipped over her shoulder, becoming more tousled than it already was. Her eyes were piercing into his soul as she frowned at him.

"This isn't our friend."

"How about we pretend?"

" _No_." The racer redirected her attention back to the front door, and she gave one last slam before she took a step back. "Alright, you won't let us in? That's fine. We'll let ourselves in!"

Before anyone could say anything, she raised one booted foot and slammed her heel straight into the door. It made a loud crash as the lock broke and it swung freely open. Shank only cast her look back to her friends, who were waiting for a signal to proceed. She nodded at them before she took a step in.

A silence had befallen all three of them as they fully stepped into the establishment. What they were surprised to find, though, was absolutely nothing.

The room was as barren as all get-out—a pretty big one at that as well, but full of emptiness. Though it seemed like it hadn't been touched in a long time. The entire room seemed to have a layer of dust covering it. The walls were bare, too, white with nothing hanging up and no patterns.

"This is the most unfashionable thing I've seen today. And I just looked at a guy with a face stuck in his neck." Yesss frowned.

"This isn't right. I heard noise coming from inside of here earlier." Shank automatically started to conjure up a reason in her mind as to why this place seemed abandoned. "I know that we're right. And if Double Dan just commissioned this guy to find a virus for him not even two weeks ago, he should be here."

"Yeah. . ." Spamley trailed off, squinting at the ground.

"You know what? It's almost like this is a—" Yesss had started, but was quickly interrupted by Spamley who let out a gasp.

"Trap!" he shouted, and before anyone could do anything, the floor beneath them collapsed inward in two pieces just like a trapdoor, resulting in a scream from all three of them as darkness consumed them.

Hitting the ground from a high place wasn't the best feeling in the world.

The first thing that Shank realized was that she had actually hit something hard. The second was that she was in pain, and could feel the backlash from the crash as stinging jolted throughout her body.

Shank was sprawled out on her stomach as she groaned, her vision doubling as she placed one hand against the side of her head. She decided the best course of action would be to close her eyes and try to recover as she drew in a breath. One ear was ringing a bit as well, only adding to her misery. She'd been in totaled car accidents in her game, yet a fall was getting the best of her? It was frustration at her own weakness that made her open up her eyes and forced herself to see through her blurred vision.

"Shank!"

She realized she was being turned over, and something supported her back as though she was being cradled. As her eyes drifted up, she could see in the dim light that there was a familiar face in view. The racer tried her hardest to focus, and when the pain finally started to fade in her head, she found it easier to tell that she was looking up at Yesss. There was a look of horror on the algorithm's face as her free hand came up and found its way on the side of Shank's cheek. Her eyes began to focus more, and the blur was gone for good.

She lifted her own hand and held onto Yesss's, to which she gasped silently when she glanced at it, and then focused back on the racer's eyes.

"Are you okay?" Shank asked her, and Yesss immediately looked taken aback.

"Me?" she demanded, "What about you? You don't get a second chance, don't you get that?"

"I'm fine." Shank squeezed her hand to reassure her, though she had only just became aware of the fact that the algorithm looked like she was about to cry.

"Don't scare me like that." Yesss's eyes crinkled slightly as she smiled in relief. "Can you get up?"

Shank only nodded, and a moment later Yesss had pulled her to her feet. The algorithm gently dusted her friend off once she had fully regained her bearings. "Where's Spamley?" she asked, looking all over.

"Right here." Spamley's voice drifted over, and he appeared a moment later in their line of vision, rubbing his arm with a grimace as though it had broken his fall—which it had. "Hate to tell you this, ladies, but we're trapped."

"Trapped?" Shank demanded, and the two girls ran over to where Spamley was.

Shank's hands immediately gripped onto bars that were just tall enough to keep them inside. In fact, their prison wasn't very big now that her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light. She only frowned and shook the metal in her grip, but nothing came out of it. She bit on her lip and turned around, seeing that Yesss was trying to dial a number on her phone.

"There's no signal down here." Yesss hissed, snapping her phone shut. "We're stuck."

Shank's heart rate increased slightly upon hearing this. The three of them were trapped with no way of getting out, and they had no idea where they were.

"We're all alone down here, aren't we?" Shank asked.

"There's no telling for sure. But what I can tell you is that this was left here for someone." Yesss answered as she looked around.

"What do you mean?" Spamley cocked his head.

"What I mean is that—well, look at this trap. This is some sort of elaborate piece of the puzzle we're trying to solve, right? Someone—probably not us, by the way—was meant to fall for this trap and be stuck down here. It was all set up a bit too perfectly. Don't you think?" Yesss looked at the two, who then shared a glance with each other.

"She's probably right." Spamley decided.

"I _know_ she's right. Did any of us trigger the trapdoor?" Shank asked. Yesss only shrugged, but Spamley only let out an uncomfortable chuckle.

"It's a funny story. You're really going to laugh." Shank's arms were already crossing, and Yesss placed a hand on her hip as she blew some of her hair out of her face, preparing for whatever this 'funny story' would entail. "There was a button on the ground. You know, I saw it, and I was really curious, so I might've pushed it."

"And let me guess, it was red?" Yesss's eyelids were fallen halfway as she pursed her lips.

"No, it was the same color as the floor, just slightly raised. Maybe someone was supposed to step on it by accident." Spamley smiled uneasily.

"Alright. So now, at least we know that someone hasn't caught onto the fact that we're here yet." Shank said slowly. "No one saw us and pulled a lever to get us stuck down here, so we aren't being monitored right now is what we can assume. If we somehow are able to, maybe we can get out before that creep comes here and finds us. . ." she trailed off, a shiver running down her spine as she saw those glowing eyes in the back of her mind once more.

"Good thinking! Now how the heck are we gonna get out of here?" Spamley asked.

There was some silence as the three thought together, but Yesss started to walk around. She began searching around the perimeters, and her two accomplices followed along. Yesss finally stopped when she found the door to the prison. There was a lock as she suspected, and there was a pause—as more thought had to be put into how to get out. The algorithm finally realized what they could do, and felt silly for not realizing it earlier.

Shank held out one hand as she turned to Shank.

"Ready to get a boost?" she asked, the ends of her mouth turning up. Shank nodded.

At the top of the prison bars was a thin layer of black metal that was keeping it all stable and together that was just wide enough to stand on top of. Yesss got down on one knee and prepared to send Shank up. A moment later the racer's heel was in the palm of Yesss's hand, and after a good enough boost she was ready to get the others out.

Shank kept one foot swung around the metal as she leaned over and reached one hand out. Yesss helped Spamley get up, and then finally Shank's hand grabbed onto Yesss's as the algorithm jumped up and barely was able to grab onto her hand. Using whatever strength she could muster up, she tugged the blue woman up and the three were free of their imprisonment.

"That went more smoothly than I expected." Shank said with a smile before she jumped down, her two friends following along.

"True. Now, though, let's see how we can get out of here. The next course of action will be going to the Search Bar," Yesss began as she pulled her phone out and put her flashlight on, "and seeing if we can find King Malware through that."

They started to navigate around the darkness. A few dim lights overhead provided a bit of a guide. It didn't take them long to realize that they were walking down a long corridor.

"We need to find him. That's our priority." Shank agreed. "I'm going to put my fist through his face when I do."

"I haven't heard you sounding this violent in a long time." Yesss said in surprise.

"Well, when someone messes with V, they're not going to get away with it." Shank shrugged at her.

"The last time you got so defensive over someone was—" Yesss was going to continue, but she cut herself off at the last second. She looked ahead again, clearing her throat as she smoothed down the rest of her hair which had become messy due to the fall. Shank clearly knew what she was talking about, and she only could sigh through her nose.

"Listen. . . Yesss, it's not like. . . it's not like we don't have to talk about her, she—" Shank had begun, but the both of them had their attention snatched by Spamley.

"Be quiet! Listen. . . do you hear that?" he was whispering now, which made the two women tense up. There was also nowhere to hide in the hallway they were walking down. No doors, no escape, nothing at all. It was just the room behind them and whatever may lie ahead, and that thought scared all of them.

But Shank knew she couldn't be fearful. Not at a time when V needed justice, when all of those characters needed justice.

Lo and behold, though, there was a sound coming from up ahead. It was very distant, but it sounded like a voice. Unless the racer was hallucinating. The three's ears strained to hear what was being said. The echoes weren't so easy to decipher, but something clicked with Yesss as her eyes widened.

"Ralph?" she asked, the light from her phone's screen reflecting upon her shocked face.

Shank and Spamley barely had a moment to react to what she said before Yesss took off, a purpose now in her run. Shank's mouth opened to call out for her to stop, because they had no idea what they were running into. It could be another trap, or they could walk into something gruesome, or—

The racer's thoughts were broken as she came to a halt as she watched Yesss staring forward. Shank's jaw loosened solely because she couldn't believe her eyes.

But right in front of her was another large cell. And a very familiar face, one she never thought she would see again, was staring back out at them in shock from the inside.

"Ralph, you're alive!" Shank managed to get out, her eyes widening further.

"How did you get here?" Ralph sounded astonished. Yesss was approaching the cell quickly, but the wrecker put up a hand. "Get back!" he warned, and the algorithm stopped in her tracks, flinching a little.

"Why? How come you. . . haven't broken out of this cell?" she asked, and then her eyes drifted across the bars as she raised her phone's light up to get a better look at the situation.

"Listen, there's no time to explain, but you gotta get out of here." Ralph ignored the question, and was looking around, his eyes darting back and forth. There was clear caution and anxiety in his voice now. "I don't know how you got here, but you have to get out of here before he comes back."

"Before who comes back?" Spamley asked.

Yesss and Shank waited on edge to hear, though Shank already knew the answer. They all did. Ralph's eyes drifted past them and up as his jaw slackened, and that's when Shank stiffened physically as she heard something behind her. Her shoulders tensed up as she turned around. Spamley already had, and Yesss glanced at him and did a double-take at the shear fear that was clearly being expressed on his face.

The two women finally turned around, and looked up as in the dim lighting, something towered over them. Yesss's light on her phone aimed right at the creature before them.

A 'something' was the best way the three could describe it. It was taller than all of them, and bigger than them, too. This was not who Shank had thought was going to come out of the shadows. The body was long and disfigured, being long with numerous pairs of legs attached to either side of its body. These legs were also long enough to keep the lanky body far from the ground, and at the end of each one were five sharp, brittle looking claws that could easily take someone out with one swipe.

It only got worse as their eyes drifted upward to see that a long, spindly neck was holding up a head a bit too big for its own good. And the face wasn't visible in the dark light, but a ghastly, glowing grin full of yellow teeth was able to be seen just fine. Shank's heart raced a little faster as she her dark eyes made contact with two lit up yellow ones. She grit her teeth, and her lips drew back a moment later when she began to connect the dots.

This wasn't what she expected at all. She had been approached by someone that was half of her height the first time, but now, he was towering over her and looked like a strange bug hybrid—he made even Ralph seem small. However, this was definitely the same horrible person that Shank had heard so much about. That Vanellope sometimes had nightmares about, that Vanellope occasionally woke up in tears about because he wouldn't leave her mind alone, that Vanellope had told Shank so much about and how hw ruined her life for years.

" _Turbo_." She spat, her fists balling tightly.

"Y-you didn't mention h-how messed u-up he looked." Spamley stammered, "H-he looked friendlier in the p-pictures. . ."

"Listen to me, you no good life destroyer!" Yesss yelled up at the towering figure, which was only a few feet away as she shoved her phone into her coat before taking a step forward, pointing up at him. "I don't know who you think you are, but you let Ralph go this instant!"

"Yesss, be quiet! Don't provoke him!" Ralph tried to warn her, but she wasn't having it.

"Did you hear me, you nasty bug?" she shouted. "By the way, you should at least look cute if you're going to be evil so that _someone_ might have a chance at liking you."

As quick as a flash a second later, five claws dove straight for Yesss and wrapped around her body. The algorithm only had a split second to react as she looked down, and then back up, her eyes wide. A moment later, she was sent flying into the nearest wall at a speed so unexpected that none of them saw it coming, though only Ralph was able to shout out a 'no!' before Yesss made contact with the hard wall. Spamley and Shank both flinched when they heard a sickening slam and crack, and Shank's eyes widened in stun as she saw Yesss crumpled against the ground. She definitely wasn't getting up anytime soon.

"H-hold it there, Buster, no need to do something like that to me!" Spamley laughed nervously when Turbo—no, this was more like a monster than an arcade character, and he should _not_ look like this, and Shank was terrified of what he looked like in better lighting since their viewing of him was so limited—turned toward him. The racer broke out of her shock and a rage quickly boiled up as though a something had snapped inside of her.

"You're going to pay for hurting her!" Shank yelled, her shiv quickly finding its way into her hand for the second time that day. She got a running start at the monster before her, but unexpectedly it turned around. Shank wasn't ready to dodge its _tail_ which she had not expected it to have at all, and she found herself in shock as something rough and scratchy and hard hit her, sending her flying away as she scraped back against the ground.

She only let out a hiss of anger as she forced her way back to her feet. She watched as Spamley was slowly backing away, his eyes wide with fear as he looked to her.

"Shank, don't fight! Just listen to me!" Ralph tried to plead with her, but she could barely hear him over the blood rushing in her ears. She only let out a battle cry of anger as she took off running toward the enemy once again, the shiv positioned in her hand. But as she jumped up to sink it right into the beast's neck, she was caught midair.

She was so shocked that she felt all the wind was knocked out of her chest, and she had to force herself to take a breath. As she looked up, she was met with that same unsettling stare.

"You know, I liked you, so I was going to save this one for the glitch. But I have something better for her, anyway. This will be nothing."

The other 'hand' of the creature was reaching up as he finished his statement. His fist was closed, and Shank's breath only quickened in fear at how long those claws were. At how quickly she could die and would never be able to regenerate. The 'Turbo' monster only let out a small laugh, although it sounded rather evil and very glitched out. Almost like how Vanellope, when she glitched, would have hiccups in her voice or her voice would glitch out with her. All too similar to that, actually.

Shank tried to squirm, but the grip around her body only tightened, and she grit her teeth. The fist started to open, and what appeared to be a virus was sitting in the middle of the palm. It was a crimson red color, and just like the virus that had entered Slaughter Race, a mist was coming off of it as it looked around with two eyes. It looked at Shank for only a second—that was all it took—before flying at her.

It wedged itself between the monster's fingers which were still holding Shank secure at a rapid speed, and Shank's eyes widened as she felt the virus absorb into her skin, and there was a second of silence.

A moment later, Shank let an ear-piercing scream as her body was wracked with an indescribable pain. It was like her entire body was on fire, but also like her entire body was breaking up repeatedly before reconnecting itself together again. Everything was ablaze, and being pricked and pulled and cut and sewn back together and then torn apart all over again, and Shank could hardly even think through her misery.

Spamley and Ralph could only watch as she screamed in agony, and a moment later she was dropped to the ground. She barely realized she'd been dropped as she rolled onto her back and clawed at her skin, wanting nothing more than to—in that moment—die. The pain was so intense that she could hardly stand it, and she only wanted it all to end.

Her voice gave out a moment later, and that too was on fire from all the screaming she'd done. She could only cry and desperately attempt to find where the virus had gone in and try to get it out of her. Turbo only smiled down in satisfaction at his handiwork before he glitched—and a moment later, he was his normal form again.

 _How can a virus inflict this much pain? How? How? How?_

She could only think those words over and over again as she sobbed, slamming one fist against the ground and used the other one to attempt to search for the virus anywhere on her body.

Turbo had slowly walked over to her, and got on his knees as he put one gloved hand on her shoulder.

"There, there. Aren't you supposed to be tough?" he asked. "Be glad you saved your precious little glitch from this type of pain."

Shank tried to focus on him, on anything other than what she was feeling as her tears continued to roll down her cheeks as her body repeatedly jolted, almost as though she was having a seizure. She tried to reach up to grab him as he continued to smile down at her. That, however, would prove to be futile as the pain became so overwhelming, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and a moment later she was out like a light.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** I apologize for the brief lack of an update! But, to make up for it, this chapter is a whooping eleven-thousand words. _Almost_ twelve-thousand.

 _Maybe_ I went cuckoo. Just a little bit.

Though, to be fair, this chapter I played around with a lot. Quite a few changes took place, and a lot of editing was involved as well. I hope that it's worth the wait though! As always your comments and reviews are appreciated more than I can say. It just makes my heart swell with joy! And as always, if you have any questions or would like to talk with me more personally don't be afraid to ask. My PMs are always open, and I love answering questions!

Reviews;

 **lalalei** : Hahaha, I hope so too. Your review really made me smirk, and what you have to say in response to my story always brightens my day.

 **pinksakura271** : You described her completely accurately. I really love her, not going to lie, all of the new characters in RBTI I enjoyed a lot—there was no one I hated. She was a great addition to the cast of characters. It was just a shame they barely gave her and Yesss any screentime. Unreal. And haha, yeah it's no problem. I agree... the first movie's message was better, even if RBTI had a good message.

Ahahaha honestly your entire review just made my cheeks hurt from grinning and laughing at your reactions! I absolutely love what you think and your commentary is great. "Blob Bum" specifically, made me burst out laughing. Your reviews make my day.

 **OwlsCantRead** : Aww, I'm sorry! But I'm so glad you think it's a solid premise, that makes me so happy to hear! Also, that's a great question.

And yeah, agreed completely, it's a _huge_ waste. It blows my mind they never interact when they should have for sure... I still don't know what Disney was thinking with that. And oh yeah, _lots_ of irony. Also, exactly! That was a huge plot hole that never got resolved. It got under my skin so much. What, did the virus just pack up and go home? Haha. Thank you for your insightful reviews!

 **Guest #1** : And your review makes my day, oh my gosh! Thank you so much! I'm honestly not sure what I might write next after this (I was planning on possibly collabing on an idea with a good friend of mine) but we'll see!

 **Tigress-is-Awesome** : Thank you so much. That means so much to me, more than you'll ever know!

 **SolarFlare579** : Your reviews always make me laugh and smile so much hahahaha. Sorry, but you might have to wait just a bit longer to find out what happened to her ;)

 **DaddlerTheDalek** : Haha same. Love your user, by the way.

 **Guest #2** : Aha aww poor Shank! It's not like it's the poor girl's fault Vanellope fell in love with Slaughter Race hahaha

 **Guest #3** : I can definitely tell you that this is not a lesson that Vanellope will want to go through hehe, but true!

 **TurquoiseTriangle** : That'll be explained soon :) but I think some might be able to guess. It's not as complicated as it might seem haha

* * *

 _Chapter 5_

* * *

Going to Tapper's always felt weird alone. It was a quiet November night for Ralph, and he wanted it to stay that way, though the silence was haunting him and reminding him how lonely being in the barren bar truly was.

He should be used to it by now, though he can't help but remember the times where he wasn't alone. The times where he had his best friend by his side willing to accompany him everywhere, to do _everything_ with him.

Sure, Ralph had other people, in fact, he had _many_ people. His days of solitude had long ended over six years ago when he decided to game jump, though when the seclusion did end, he had found much more than a best friend. He had found a sister, someone who he wanted to protect, someone who he wanted to keep an eye out for at all times. When she had voiced her thoughts on something, he was there to support her. When she had needed someone to console her, he was there to listen. When she was in need of help, he was there to assist her. And when she was sad, he was there to comfort her.

Now, he had no one who was in need of any of that.

Though his insecurities had been vanquished on that fateful day they had traveled to the Internet, he still couldn't help but miss Vanellope's presence. Some days, he would throw himself into his work and make sure he did the best that he could while he kept a smile on his face, genuinely enjoying life. Other days he would feel so lonesome he felt like nothing would be able to fill the gap inside of him that was now there in his little sister's absence, and that was a struggle he dealt with quite frequently, even if she _was_ just one call away.

Yes, he had long let her go and felt good about the decision to let her go into the Internet because that was her dream, but life just wasn't the same. When the good days were around, he was happy. And when the bad ones came, they were awful.

This happened to be one of those bad days.

Ralph's eyes were staring down into a root beer, which had lost most of its fizz at the top and had become a bit undesirable from sitting there too long. He had been overthinking too much again. He hadn't even showed up to Bad Anon that day, he was just so out of it. So out of it that he nearly hadn't heard the words now being spoken to him.

"Long day, Ralph?"

The wrecker's head perked a bit at the concerned voice as he was pulled from thought, and his eyes moved up to see Tapper watching him.

"Yeah," he responded gruffly, one giant hand holding up his head as he readjusted himself in his seat, "it was pretty tiring."

"Are you sure you're doing alright?" Tapper asked as he wiped out a glass, raising one brow.

"I guess," Ralph answered simply, "it's just the same-old same-old around here. Do your work, sit around and wait for Litwak's to open again. . . it can get exhausting sometimes."

There was silence that followed, besides the squeaky sound of a glass being wiped clean. It was a slow night at Tapper's—normally it was bustling with life, but tonight, there was an anniversary party at Sugar Rush, and most of the arcade had gone there for the celebration.

"It's quiet without her, ain't it?"

Well, that wasn't really something Ralph expected to hear. And the wrecker knew very well who 'her' was referring to.

"Mm." Ralph grunted, frowning a bit as he looked back down at his no longer cold root beer.

"Sorry. Can't help but be observant of that myself. I quite enjoyed her company here." Tapper went on with a shrug.

Ralph was _certain_ that he was over Vanellope's departure until someone mentioned her again, or he'd see one of the Sugar Rush racers talking about how much fun they had on the tracks. Him simply going anywhere near that game would trigger good memories with the girl in his mind that immediately made him wish he could have those times back. Tonight hurt a lot, being it was her (old, though Ralph hated thinking past-tense) game's anniversary, and all he could think about was how she was missing it. It even hurt him nowadays to wear the broken heart around his neck that reminded him of her always, even if it was such a treasured item to him.

He had only started feeling that way in the past week or so, though, just because Vanellope had been gone for months.

"She was going to be here tonight. But she had to cancel last minute." Ralph said after heaving a long sigh.

Vanellope was always occupied with Slaughter Race—always. Understandable, that was her. . . _occupation_ now, and players would be up all day and all night playing it, so she rarely had breaks. Though he hated her cancelling on him.

 _"I'm so sorry Ralph, but I've gotta help Shank again today. I really was hoping to make it tonight. Tell the others I miss them, okay? Especially the Sarge and Felix. I miss you all so much."_

 _"Alright, kid. Don't sweat it. I understand, so will they."_

He had felt good at first—he wasn't really worried about her, not in the slightest. She could take care of herself, pursue her own dreams, have her own life. He felt good about her leaving—he didn't feel scared, and certainly was not under the impression that he'd go back to being a zero. He hadn't lied whenever someone would ask how he was doing and he would respond 'great!'

However, that was months ago. Now, he felt anxious at times—he found himself worry about her when she didn't answer his calls, which was becoming more and more frequent, especially since he hadn't seen her in so long. She was his little sister after all, he couldn't help it, even if he didn't need her to be there by his side twenty-four seven like she used to be.

"I didn't mean to poke a nerve, Ralph." Tapper said apologetically as he observed the depressed looking bad guy. "Can I get you another root beer?"

Before Ralph could even get a word out, there was a very familiar voice that spoke first.

"Make that three, please! On me!"

"Sure thing, Felix." Tapper said before he disappeared to fetch the drinks.

Ralph's head turned, and he glanced to see the hero of his game and Calhoun coming up beside him. The wrecker blinked.

"I thought you two were at Sugar Rush with the kids."

"Oh, we were," Felix began, smiling at Ralph, "but then we noticed you weren't there. Qbert told us where you were."

"He has a habit of doing that." Ralph muttered, forcing himself to not roll his eyes.

"We wouldn't have needed much direction from Qbert to find you, though." Calhoun said as she took her seat next to Felix, who had taken a seat beside his bad guy counterpart.

"Oh, yeah? What's that supposed to mean?" Ralph asked, raising a brow.

"You come here a lot, Wreck-It. Can't stay away from the beer." Calhoun smirked as Tapper passed out three glasses among them. The sergeant's smile faded a bit a moment later, though, as she got more serious. One armor-clad hand wrapped around her drink as she spoke again, "So what's the deal, ham hands? Why didn't you come tonight?"

Ralph found himself drinking this time rather than wasting the second beer like he had the first one. He put his beer mug down roughly and he sighed out of his nose.

"Why do you think?" he asked gruffly, wiping some excess froth from his mouth and onto the back of one huge hand.

There was silence from the couple. Their blue eyes were filled with a mixture of emotions as they stared at each other, both obviously a bit troubled by this response. Then they finally turned back to Ralph, who only stared down his root beer.

"Well, Ralph, we know why, we just want you to talk about it." Felix encouraged, grimacing a little at the tension in the air.

"Yeah. Tell us what's going on inside of your head." Calhoun added.

Ralph felt himself becoming frustrated quickly with himself.

"I. . . just wish she would come back." he drawled. "I miss her."

"We all do." Calhoun interjected, "But we're together in this, not alone. You know that all of us miss the little cavity."

"Yeah, I know, but I. . ." Ralph trailed off.

"You miss her the most." Felix finished for him. His soft eyes reflected sadness. "Like Tammy said, though, you're not alone, Ralph. Don't think that you are, not even for a second."

"But, Felix. . . I _feel_ alone sometimes." Ralph blurted out, immediately regretting it. Felix's eyes widened for a moment.

"You—wait, what?"

"I feel alone sometimes, alright?" Ralph finally admitted. "You two know you're as close to me as family, and I know you two always have my back. But Vanellope was as close to me as you two are to each other, you know? I get caught up in thinking about the kid, and I just feel funny, like I'm all alone in the world without her here."

The wrecker's head fell, and he kept his eyes on the root beer.

"But. . . Ralph, you're not alone." Felix spoke up, taking on a much more worried tone. "Do. . . do you feel like that because we're always sidetracked with the kids?"

"No, no. . . it's not that, it has nothing to do with what you guys are doing. It's not anyone's fault but mine for getting caught up in thinking about her, and getting so down about it. It's not always like this. We _do_ have great times without her. But on days like this I get so caught up in thinking about what she's up to in Slaughter Race and knowing she's got this whole new life, and I'm not there to spend it with her. It probably sounds stupid."

He massaged his temple, trying to get a hold of himself as he felt an emotional surge rising in his chest that he immediately attempted to shove down.

"Ralph, of course it's not stupid." Felix insisted. "It's good you're talking to us about this, because—oh my land, Ralph, are you crying?" the fixer's eyes widened, and even Calhoun was surprised as her jaw loosened.

"No!" Ralph insisted as closed his eyes, wiping away the trace of tears that had only begun to form, and he sniffed back his emotions.

"It's okay to cry, Wreck-It." Calhoun said, and she leaned over to pat him on the back.

"Yes Ralph, that's how you feel better." Felix looked at him, brows furrowed as the sadness in his eyes started becoming more apparent as the seconds ticked by.

Ralph, a bit embarrassed at his lack of emotional control, only cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.

"Sorry," he said, "I'm fine now. No need to worry."

Felix's stare burned into him for another lingering moment, but he finally looked away.

"It's not fine to feel all alone, Ralph." Felix said quietly.

"I didn't really mean that." Ralph sighed, "You wouldn't understand."

"Not so fast, Wreck-It." Calhoun snapped. "Don't act like you're the only one who misses the girl."

Ralph blinked when he realized he'd struck a nerve. Calhoun's eyes went back to her root beer and she swiftly finished it, slamming it down on the counter, to which Ralph flinched slightly. Her lips were now pursed, and the stare she was giving her empty mug was deadly as she started brooding. But a moment later, he began to realize something as he heard what she said over and over again in her mind. Though his thoughts were interrupted as a voice spoke.

"When we're out there doing our jobs, and I smile at you, and you smile at me when you get thrown off that roof, I feel like nothing's up with you. Brother, the last thing I want is for you to feel like you've only got Vanellope, because that's not true at all." Felix said, looking up at him.

"That's just it, Felix—I feel fine when my mind isn't on the kid, but sometimes I get absorbed in the thought of her, and it really drags me down. And I know I have you, and Calhoun, and even the guys at Bad Anon among others, not to mention your kids. I know that it's selfish of me to wish Vanellope was back when I've got so much already." Ralph replied, his frustration at himself quickly returning.

"It's not selfish." Calhoun frowned at him, and the wrecker stiffened. "She's a little lamb who left the flock, all on her own and doing her own thing. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't miss her. You let her go, and sure, you feel good about it, but you continue to suffer because she means a lot to you."

Ralph thought about that for a moment before he began to nod.

"You're right about that." Ralph responded.

Meanwhile, Felix was on another plane of existence, looking distraught.

"I have to do better," the fixer finally was able to muster up, sounding very forlorn, "because I never want my own brother to be feeling this sad, ever." Ralph only blinked in shock when he saw the look on Felix's face. It was as though he had just watched a puppy die. The wrecker opened his mouth to speak, but Felix wasn't done. "How couldn't I notice how unhappy you've been? I've been so busy being a parent I hardly noticed something was wrong. How could I? I—"

"Felix." Ralph interrupted him and put a hand on his counterpart's shoulder, and the fixer's jaw remained open before he slowly shut it. "I haven't been unhappy, only on some days like tonight, which will probably be the hardest day to deal with in a while. In fact, I'm feeling so much better right now because I get to be here with the both of you. And now that I know I'm not alone in missing Vanellope, it feels like a weight has lifted."

Calhoun instantly scoffed, "For the _love_ of. . . of _course_ we miss her. You don't think I miss her when I look at those kids? When we have family dinners and Vanellope's seat is always empty? When I hear about who beat who in the races, and immediately think about the fact that Vanellope would have won all those races by a landslide? How things _aren't_ the same now that Taffyta is the one in charge in Sugar Rush?" the sergeant demanded.

"I called Taffyta ' _Vannie_ ' the other day," Felix recalled uneasily, "and she was not happy about that in the slightest, but I suppose I was just thinking about her."

"Maybe one of these days we ought to actually pay her a visit. Or give her a call," Calhoun frowned a little, "but she never even said goodbye to us. She probably wouldn't bat an eye at us thinking about her."

"I'm sure she cares. Just not as much as she used to." Felix spoke hesitantly.

" _Probably not at all_." Calhoun ended the conversation on an extremely depressing note. Felix's eyes widened slightly, but he just looked back ahead, swallowing harshly. It seemed that he, although clearly did not want to, agreed with his wife.

The wrecker's eyes widened slightly. He knew that his two friends cared greatly about Vanellope, but he never had known the extent of it after she left. They were shocked, of course, but they were excited for her to start a new life on her own, so Ralph thought they were fine with it. But now, he was seeing something different.

Back when Sugar Rush was being evacuated after being invaded with Cybugs, it had been Felix and Calhoun who tried to protect Vanellope until the very end alongside Ralph. After all of that had happened, the four had forged a family bond that had never been broken.

And that was another reason Ralph had been so incredibly stumped by Vanellope's last second decision to take her leave from Litwak's. Ralph remembered how happy she was. Fifteen years of solitude—and double that for Ralph—had taken a toll on her mentally, that much was sure. Vanellope could act confident and witty most of the time, but she had her sensitive side, and if she had ever lost any of her new-found family, as she had said herself, she 'wouldn't know what to do.'

But when Ralph stared at the couple's faces—Felix, who was devastated at the idea of Vanellope not caring, and Calhoun, who was clearly angered as well as disheartened—he realized that Vanellope had caused damage not only to Ralph, but to them as well. At first, the pair didn't seem that impacted by Vanellope's departure. He was seeing it now, though. Months of built up sadness and anger, clearly reflected in the pair's facial expressions, when Ralph thought he was the only one suffering in silence.

Finally, the wrecker knew what he had to say.

"She told me to tell you that she missed you guys." Ralph cleared his throat. "And that she's sorry for not saying anything to you two before she left. She really regrets it."

Immediately, the two perked up, and Felix and Calhoun both wore the same expression of surprise. New emotion quickly seared across their faces. The fixer was so happy that he looked like he was about to cry as he grinned, while the sergeant had her own smile spread across her face. This reassurance from the girl brought their spirits back up from the floor.

"Alright. . . I still am a bit upset about not receiving a departure in-person, but she's forgiven for the most part. That didn't take much, did it?" Calhoun nudged Felix.

"No, no it didn't." Felix replied, sounding much more happy now. "Say, why don't we send her a message? We can use Ralph's fancy little doohickey."

"Not a bad idea, short stack, not a bad idea at all."

"But what should we say?"

Ralph's own smile appeared on his face as they began discussing what things they should say in their message. He had to admit, although he felt relieved at the revelation that he wasn't alone in missing his best friend, he had made things a bit awkward with how sad he had sounded earlier. As the couple got lost in their conversation, he finished his drink and got to his feet.

"Thanks, Felix, for paying. I'll see you at work tomorrow." He readjusted his overalls before turning to take his leave.

"Not so fast, Ralph!" Felix jumped up and got in front of him. Ralph paused uncertainly. "I'm not gonna let you walk out of here upset."

"I just feel. . . awkward, you know? It's not like me to just spill tears out of nowhere. But I'm fine now." he scratched the back of his head.

"Are you sure about that?" Felix cocked his head, a frown just visible from below the brim of his cap.

"Of course I'm sure, I—"

Ralph was interrupted as the smaller of the two leapt up and plastered himself to Ralph's shirt. The wrecker was stunned as he felt Felix hugging him, and before he could hug back, Calhoun joined in.

"Just remember that you're not alone, okay?" Felix asked. "We might get busy sometimes, but we're still family no matter what you think, and you're not walking out of here without knowing that."

Ralph felt the tears come back to his eyes at this unexpected reassurance.

"It's okay to miss her, Ralph, don't forget that. We miss her too, much more than you might think." Calhoun chimed in, and that seemed to push him over the edge.

He hugged onto them, and the tears came flooding that he had tried so hard to suppress. Ralph knew he had come to peace with letting Vanellope go, but still he yearned for her return. It bothered him greatly to feel a component of him was missing. They were the inseparable duo until Slaughter Race came into the girl's life, after all.

He still sometimes found himself wishing that he never intervened in making a new track in Sugar Rush which inadvertently caused the game to get unplugged. It was all his fault—but he had given one thing to Vanellope: a new found purpose and happiness, even if that did not include him, and that's what he had to remember at the end of the day.

Felix and Calhoun tried their best to comfort him without getting too emotional themselves, and the three stayed hugging for a long while Ralph got all of his heartache out in Tapper's.

* * *

After Sugar Rush's anniversary, things started to get better.

Ralph was feeling cheerier, as if he was now on top of the world. Occasionally, he saw the concerned eyes of Felix watching him at times, making sure that he wasn't feeling down. Though Ralph did not feel sad at all. For the first time, in a long while, he was feeling so much better. Maybe he needed to get out his emotions that he had been building up. Scratch that—he _definitely_ had needed to.

One night after the arcade closed, Ralph was sitting alone atop the penthouse of Fix-It Felix Jr. and staring out at the distant world just beyond his reach. The sun was just coming up, which meant the arcade would be open for business soon. He had a smile on his face as he reflected upon everything that had been going on the past few weeks.

That same night after the cry-fest at Tapper's, Ralph decided to call Vanellope again to give Felix and Calhoun a shot at talking to her. No answer, no biggie. All three left her a message together, and that alone was enough to make the married couple happy, even if they would rather see Vanellope face to face. Knowing they had at least reached out to her though was enough to keep them content. Ever since then, Ralph had been with them more and more—and things only went uphill from there.

Family dinners seemed to be so much more lively. The racers were being extra sweet to him lately—well, that might have been the influence of Calhoun and Felix, though Ralph appreciated it nonetheless. He was most surprised when at the last dinner, Taffyta broke down in tears, talking about how much she missed Vanellope. The other children only stayed quiet while Felix comforted her. Considering they had bullied Vanellope into near submission for fifteen years, it was shocking to him to see them sad that she was gone, but of course things could change.

Ralph, at first, wasn't sure exactly what to say to the racers. They too had never gotten a goodbye, and at the start they seemed to race all the feelings that came with Vanellope's absence away, but they were much more sad when they didn't have her to compete with. At first like their parents, they had seemed to shrug it off and feel happy for the girl going on her own path, but now they were feeling the backlash of her leaving. It was clear most of them blamed themselves for Vanellope's disappearance, though they never verbalized it.

From the looks on their faces whenever the ex-president was mentioned, however, anyone could tell from the dreary expressions that they did think it was their fault Vanellope left. While Felix only continued to rub the child's hand to try and make her feel better, Ralph surprisingly stepped up to the plate.

"Listen. . . I know that it hurts," he started, and heads turned in his direction, "because I miss her, too. But," he smiled slightly, and looked at Felix and Calhoun, "what you have to remember is that you aren't alone. We're all together in this, and we all miss her."

The couple only smiled at this, while Taffyta rubbed her eyes.

"Thanks, Uncle Ralph. That makes me feel a lot better." The strawberry racer concluded with a sniff. Felix from beside her put one gloved hand over his mouth, his honeyglows brightening at Ralph's newly found title as he resisted to let out a noise which would be a mixture of an 'aww' and a squeak, while Calhoun smirked from where she sat.

Ralph could only sink into his own smile. Just a few years ago he was chasing her away from Vanellope, and now, he was getting called 'uncle.' That was _not_ something he could foresee, no matter how hard he tried.

The Sugar Rush racers still loved their jobs, and they now had a family that took care of them, and everyone seemed to be getting a little better, and they were learning to cope with their glitchy president being gone.

Zangief's book club meetings were finally getting more entertaining, too. They were reading a new series called _The Hunger Games_. Ralph found himself bickering with Sonic about Peeta being the superior love interest in the story, while the others only watched in silence, shaking their heads. Qbert, much to Ralph's pleasure, agreed with him, although Clyde sided with Sonic's argument, while Zangief insisted that Katniss didn't need a man in order to squash the Capitol's heads between her thighs.

As time went by, Ralph's mental health seemed to peak as, day by day, he began thinking about Vanellope's absence less, and started thinking about what was going around him more. He was living in the now and not the past anymore.

Ralph heard some footsteps clacking on the ladder up the side of the building. He was brought out of his thought as he turned. A familiar cap appeared, and then two blue eyes and rosy cheeks as well.

"Lonely up here, isn't it?" was Felix's first question. He had a smile on his face, but it was one of those nervous ones that Ralph recognized right away, like the ones he used to flash the wrecker in their thirty years of merely being acquaintances.

"Nah. It's nice and quiet, a good thinking place." Ralph replied as Felix came up beside him, mimicking Ralph's position as he hung his feet over the edge of the building.

"I suppose it is nice to get away from the craziness once in a while." The fixer commented, rolling his shoulders.

"Well, when you have so many kids on your hands that you adopted in a split-second decision. . ." Ralph started, giving a knowing look. "I think it can get more than a _little_ crazy."

"You said it best," Felix said with a good-natured sigh, his eyes still straight ahead as he smiled, "but I wouldn't give up this life I've got for anything."

Ralph blinked. If he had heard a statement like that a while ago, he knew his mind would have automatically went to a sarcastic or bitter response. _Yeah? What about for Slaughter Race?_ He imagined something like that would have been his snarky reply.

Instead, his teeth appeared as he grinned, "I wouldn't either."

Felix looked up as he waggled his feet, and said in a rather unconvinced tone, "I'm glad to hear you say that."

"Listen Felix, you have nothing to worry about."

"What? I'm not worrying. I know that you're okay." Felix went on, his eyes darting away, and Ralph automatically recognized that body language. Still unconvinced.

"Do you think we just met yesterday?" Ralph smirked. His counterpart hesitated, before conceding.

"Alright, fine, I'm worrying." Felix admitted.

"Don't. I'm feeling great, and it's all thanks to you and Calhoun. Ever since I got everything off my chest that night, I've just been on cloud nine."

Felix's suspicion seemed to melt away, and some honeyglow rose to his cheeks, "Don't give us so much credit, Ralph."

The wrecker's smile only grew wider, "I'm just lucky to have a family that looks out for me as much as I try to look out for them."

Felix's smile widened as well, and then silence followed for a while.

Ralph started to think, and he knew he was ignoring a topic he wanted to bring up to Felix. He sighed internally before his smile faded. Not everything was so happy-go-lucky like he wished it was. Sure, he was feeling better, but not everyone else was. In fact, most of the arcade was in disbelief, confusion, and sadness during this time, because bad things had been occurring.

"I can't believe that Pac-Man got unplugged." Ralph murmured, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

"Me either." Felix replied solemnly, wringing his hands. "Golly, I know they've been plugged in a few years longer than us, but I never expected to see the day they would go."

"And what about Street Fighter II?" Ralph went on, surprise clear in his face as well as his voice.

"It's just one of those games you never expect to be unplugged." Felix said.

"Yeah. . ." Ralph agreed, sighing.

A silence fell befell between the two once more. Both were troubled and lost in thought. Games rarely got unplugged, but for the reason of overheating? That had never been a problem, ever. Not even in Ralph and Felix's golden days was that an issue. It was always a travesty to watch a game being put out to pasture and not being able to do anything about it. Especially two within the same week. The last time that had happened, it was TurboTime and RoadBlasters, and the circumstances were considerably different. He'd tried calling Vanellope after Street Fighter II got unplugged, though once again he could only leave a voicemail.

"Something just doesn't feel right about it, Felix." Ralph said slowly, shaking his head. "Something's gotta be wrong."

"But what?" the handyman asked, to which the wrecker started to think again.

"I don't know. Pac-Man was glitching out a bit before everything happened, right?"

"That's right. Mr. Litwak did say it was acting funny when his attention was brought to it." Felix replied.

"I talked to Clyde about it, and he told me the game wasn't acting normal. But the main reason it had to be unplugged was because of the overheating. That's just weird."

And then, a thought popped into the pair's heads, and they slowly looked at one another.

"I just hope that it doesn't keep happening." Felix swallowed uncomfortably. "Especially not to Sugar Rush or our game. . ."

Ralph wasn't sure how to reassure his friend that there would be no problem with their game.

Maybe they both had inadvertently jinxed it.

Because a moment later, a very familiar song started playing in their ears. Both of them automatically perked, and turned to look at each other.

"Now. . . I know that no one put a coin in." Felix said, looking a little pale.

"Alright, alright, there's no need to panic. It's just a bug. It's not like this hasn't happened before." Ralph pointed out.

And of course, he was right. No game was without its bugs or defects in coding, especially a game from the 1980s. Ralph recalled a few occasions when, in the middle of the night, the startup theme would play. _I'm gonna wreck it!_ followed by _Fix it, Felix!_ and _I can fix it!_ popping up on the screen, though everyone was fast asleep in the penthouse—well, aside from Ralph, who was always woken up by the music and sound effects from where he used to sleep in the bricks.

It hadn't happened in quite a few years.

Though, admittedly, it had never taken place during daylight hours before. Per the norm, the pop up text appeared for Ralph. His text popped up. The Nicelanders all chimed in with their line despite them not being in their positions, as did Felix, even though from beside Ralph, he spoke nothing, and instead continued to stare down in concern at what was happening right before their eyes. The pop-up texts then disappeared.

The hero and bad guy gave it a moment as they kept their eyes glued below.

"See? Everything's fine." Ralph said, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Just a little bug that's always been around. Nothing more than that."

"You're right, Ralph. I guess I got a bit parano—" Felix had started, but was interrupted.

A loud crash caught both of their attention, and the whole building rattled slightly. Both Ralph and Felix froze up, flummoxed at this. It was a familiar shake to them, though—nothing they hadn't ever felt before.

"I don't understand," Felix said, getting onto his feet, "no one's wrecking the building. . . so why. . ?"

He never got to finish as another _crash_ caught their attention, and the pair's eyes widened. A window shattered on its own as nothing hit it. It was as if Ralph was there, hitting it, but at the same time, he was sitting beside Felix on the top of the penthouse.

"Sweet Mother Hubbard." Ralph deadpanned, eyes widening further as another window shattered. There was a scream of alarm from one of the Nicelanders somewhere inside the building. Felix's hand ran across his hammer that was sitting at his hip, and he turned to his companion.

"Ralph, we have to do something. This has never happened bef—!"

As the building shook again, much harder than the last time, Felix lost his feet and let out a cry of shock as he went tumbling off.

"Felix!" Ralph tried to reach out and grab him, but it was too late. The wrecker only watched as Felix fell straight through one of the bushes as they split apart and then sprung back up as if nothing ever happened—thankfully that probably broke his fall and he would be fine, even if he would regenerate anyhow.

Ralph only watched in surprise as, once again, he saw his most famous line popping up— _I'm gonna wreck it!_ —followed by, once again, the chime in of the Nicelanders and Felix. And a moment later, the building shook even harder as damage seemed to be happening twice as fast.

Knowing that something bad was about to happen—rather, the building was about to be entirely in ruins—the wrecker quickly scaled down it, in disbelief at what he was seeing. The bug had never acted in this way before. Only the character lines would be said, and that was it. End of the story, but never had Ralph seen the building start to destroy itself. Maybe it was another bug they'd never seen before. That had to be it—and that was the reasoning Ralph would be going with for the time building until he had a moment to breathe.

He finally got to the bottom and ran over to where Felix had fallen. With his two massive hands, he split the bushes with great ease. Well, his friend seemed to be okay, but he was definitely knocked out.

"Oh, come on," Ralph groaned as he lifted up the limp form of the hero, "I've gotten thrown off this building a million times, and you can't stay conscious one time?"

The wrecker gasped as a moment later, the building started shaking again, and this time, without mercy. The whole thing was starting to fall apart as a few loosened bricks fell onto his head. He ducked just as the window beside him shattered. His eyes only widened as he saw some of the Nicelanders running out.

It was absolute chaos as the character lines continued to pop up again. The damage got worse every time they went off, as if every time another invisible Ralph appeared to start wrecking the building once the lines ended, doubling the destruction of the building. At this point, there would be three invisible Ralphs destructing, with no fixing in sight.

"Gene!" Ralph shouted over the noise of the crumbling building. The Nicelander—rather, not-so-Nicelander—looked up at him with a look of shock.

"You're not wrecking the building?" he demanded.

"No! Why would I be?" Ralph snapped sharply.

"Oh, maybe because it's your _job_?" Gene hissed.

There was no time for talking, though. Some of the Nicelanders had gotten out, though some were still trapped inside, most likely. The damage only got worse, and on the outside, another was watching in surprise as a shadow was casted over Niceland.

From the real world, Mr. Litwak scratched his head as he surveyed the pixelated building being destroyed by seemingly nothing. The audio was crackling and the music was jumbling. The game seemed to be going cuckoo as the characters ran around like chickens without their heads.

"Ah, maybe it's time to put Ralph and Felix out to pasture for good. . . the game has _definitely_ gone off the deep end this time." He reached forward to try and move one of the buttons as he reached for a coin to try and test the console, and was stunned. "What happened here? It's hot to the touch."

Ralph and Gene, who had been continuing in their argument, looked up and saw the arcade owner and heard what he said.

"Litwak's going to pull our plug." Ralph realized, feeling breathless. "Come on, we have to go."

"We need to make sure everyone's out!" Gene scowled at Ralph, but the wrecker was having none of it.

He had an unconscious Felix over one shoulder, and grabbed onto the collar of Gene as he began to run away.

Ralph knew it was wrong. Of course he knew it was wrong, but everyone else couldn't go down with the entire ship. It was a selfish split-second decision to leave the others behind. Ralph could only scoop up the Nicelanders he saw shuffling toward the train carts to get them there faster.

He dropped them off at the station as they all began to file in. Ralph handed off Felix to Mary and Lucy, who were startled to see their hero unconscious.

The wrecker started counting to make sure everyone was there, but he knew there was quite a few missing. No—a lot, but what could be done? Knowing that there was no time to go back and save the others, he started to push the cart out of the station, but then he realized one person in particular was gone.

"Where's. . ?" he trailed off, looking around as the carts began to slowly move, and his eyes widened as he spotted Gene running off in the distance. "Hey!" Ralph shouted over the cries of the Nicelanders around him.

Gene ignored him as he scurried over to Deandra, who was stuck under a heavy-looking piece of rubble not far away from the building.

"Gene!" Ralph shouted again. When did the nasty guy that the wrecker previously hated get so brave?

"I'm not going to leave without getting at least one person out of this mess!" Gene snapped at Ralph.

There was cries of protest from the other Nicelanders, while Ralph knew what he had to do. He hopped out of the cart and started to run toward the two Nicelanders as Gene tried desperately to pull out Deandra from the rubble, but it was no use. Another shake powerfully seized the building, and a moment later, it all started to fall forward. The two Nicelanders looked up in shock as the building collapsed into absolute ruin, and the pair of them were buried beneath tons of bricks. It could all easily be fixed by Felix, but there was no time for any of that.

"Gene!" Mary let out a shrill scream, followed along by the other Nicelanders who were in absolute stun.

"No!" Ralph shouted, and his eyes widened when he noticed the absence of Mr. Litwak's face in the view of the game's screen. He was pulling the plug. With hesitation, Ralph could only retreat backwards and give a heaving push onto the back of the little cart ride, ending up creating a force strong enough to cause a chain reaction as it all slammed together and moved forward at a much faster speed.

Ralph used his hands to push them further from the inside of the plug, just able to reach the sides with the tip of his fingers. They might not end up making it after all.

He thrust them forward faster and faster, standing up to get more leverage while balancing in the tiny cart. All the Nicelanders that had managed to get on were still panicking. The light at the end of the tunnel started to appear, and Ralph breathed in relief, but knew the risk wasn't over yet. He could hear the warning sign blaring that the game was getting unplugged.

On the outside, Surge was advising everyone to stay far away, but he was getting an earful instead while a worried group listened.

"You're going to let me in there, _or_ I'm going to pump you full of lead!" Calhoun was snapping, trying to get past him. But every time she tried to move to the side to get past him, he was there to block her, pushing her back. The Sugar Rush racers were watching with wide eyes at the scene playing out before them.

"I can't let you go in there. You'll risk endangering your li—"

" _My husband is in there_! And I'm not letting him die on _my_ watch!" Calhoun barked as she stood over him, and finally shoved him aside for good, slamming the butt of her gun into his side just hard enough to get him off his feet so that she would be able to get past him. She pulled her hover board from over her head, getting ready to fly in there for a rescue. But before anyone could do anything, there was a collection of yells coming from down the entrance of Fix-It Felix Jr., which alarmed everyone in the surrounding area. The group that had gathered started to murmur in worry.

It grew louder and louder until there was a loud _crash_. The little carts, already so worn from use, easily broke apart as they hit the end of the track at an incredible speed and went flying out into Game Central Station, right over Calhoun and Surge's heads as they stared with hung jaws. There were squeals of shock from the arcade dwellers who had to jump away to avoid being smashed by any of the carts.

And finally, the alarm stopped as the game was officially unplugged.

Ralph's lungs felt like they had no air, because for the first time in thirty-seven years, their game was gone. He stared in shock—and immediately, Gene and the other Nicelanders who were unable to be saved immediately came to mind, and he felt sick to his stomach.

Everyone who had gathered began helping the Nicelanders up, who had all been strewn about in different carts that had ended up all over the place.

Calhoun, of course, had found her way over to Felix in an instant—she already had him in her lap from where she sat on the floor. He'd woken up from the ordeal, finally, and Calhoun was staring down at him with wide eyes. There was stun and fear and a bit of relief mixed in them. Felix was just coming out of his daze.

"Jiminey jaminey, what happened?" he asked, looking up into his wife's eyes. His own widened when he saw there were tears dripping down her cheeks. "Tammy! W-what's the matter?"

"Don't scare me like that ever again, you hear me?" Calhoun demanded. Her voice crack gave away just how terrified she had been feeling as she ran a hand through his hair, pressing her forehead to his, "I thought you were going to bite the dust for sure."

It was then that Felix realized what had actually happened as his memories came flooding back, and he only cupped her face in his hands.

"I'm sorry for worrying you." He said, feeling a bit of guilt that he had caused her to cry. He was able to tilt her head up just enough to kiss her, and that little gesture seemed to reassure him that he was in fact alive and not a ghost.

The Sugar Rush racers, for the first time in their lives—aside from the time they realized Vanellope was the princess of their game, of course—were speechless. They watched on, unable to process what was even happening. They still couldn't believe it. The game had been like a second home to them. It wasn't like anyone could go over for a relaxing night at Hero's Duty without the risk of getting eaten by Cybugs. Fix-It Felix Jr. was another place where they belonged, and now, it was gone.

Felix got onto his feet, as did Calhoun who was still wiping her face clean of the remnants of her tears. The handyman picked up his cap which was fallen a few feet away and placed it atop his head. The fixer stared out at the Nicelanders, and mentally he began to count. And he was horrified at the number he came back with.

"Ralph. . ." Felix said, turning to look at his brother, who was staring at what was once their game's entrance. "Where. . . where is everyone else?"

The wrecker had a dark look on his face. He did not meet Felix's eyes as he solemnly responded, "They didn't make it."

"W-what?" Felix felt like the wind had been knocked out of his chest. "That's a funny joke, Ralph. R-really funny. . ." his lip tremored as Ralph turned his head.

"We couldn't save them. No. . . _I_ couldn't save them. It was too late. We were getting unplugged." He went on. "We had to get out. There was no time. I had to save us instead."

Felix's face went entirely pale when Ralph was questioned about what had happened inside the game, and he began to retell the events that had taken place a few minutes ago. The fixer stared out at the Nicelanders who were shaken up by the experience, hugging each other and receiving comforting words and gestures from the onlookers. He could only raise one gloved hand to his mouth, and he had to take a step back as he stumbled slightly, as though he had been hit.

Anyone that knew Felix knew that it was a true rarity to see him sad. He was _always_ happy go lucky. Sitting around sobbing was not typical for him. But now, when the realization struck him in his heart, he felt immense guilt and grief swamp him and dare to drown him with how thick it was.

"Had I not. . . had I not been so stupid and knocked myself out, I. . . maybe. . ." he trailed off.

But a moment later, he was grabbed by his shoulders and spun around. Calhoun was sitting on her knees, staring him straight in the face. She herself was still shaky from the scare, but she couldn't sit by when Felix sounded so watery.

"You almost didn't get out either. No one is to blame." She said as his lip continued to tremor as he thought about all of his now dead friends, "It's not your fault. Not Wreck-It's, not yours, not anyone's."

This reassurance helped him to feel a bit better, though he still couldn't help but feel guilty as his vision blurred further. Calhoun could only wrap her arms around him and reassure him again and again softly in his ear that he had done nothing wrong.

"I've never seen him so sad before." Rancis whispered into Candlehead's ear, who only sadly nodded in agreement. Taffyta had been watching in silence.

The strawberry racer, although not the most empathetic at times, was now feeling an uncontrollable emotion wash over her like a wave when she realized how close of a call it had been. She could have lost a major part of her family, _forever_. She didn't even want to _imagine_ that type of horrifying pain.

Her uneven breaths turned into sniffles and whimpers. That seemed to catch both Felix and Calhoun's attention, and both turned their heads toward the source of the sound.

"It's okay, Taff." Candlehead tried as she reached out a hand to place comfortingly on her fellow racer's shoulder, but it was already too late.

Tears started to stream down Taffyta's face as she ran over to her parents, her little arms immediately diving for Felix's neck. His eyes widened slightly as she began to uncontrollably weep.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she choked out between her cries. The other racers were also now growing quickly emotional as they watched the scene playing out. It didn't take very long for the contagious tears to get to them as well, and like a stampede they ran over to the three, cluttering together in one heaping mess of a sobbing group hug.

And while the Fix-It family, though very emotional, rejoiced that they could all still be together, Ralph stared into the dark abyss that had once been his home. It was all gone. Sure, he had hated Gene, and despised the Nicelanders for some time—but that had all changed after he game jumped. Now, most of them were gone, and were probably never coming back.

Ralph couldn't help but feel responsible as the despair sank deeply into his chest.

* * *

After the tragedy that had been Fix-It Felix Jr.'s unplugging, there was a new rule in Game Central Station.

Once the arcade closed for the day, everyone was supposed to report back to Game Central Station so that nothing bad would happen to anyone—as in, no one would get unplugged with a game in the middle of the night. No one had a problem with obeying this new rule. Though, ever since Fix-It Felix Jr. went down, nothing bad had happened to the other games. That was, until two weeks later.

Ralph had been sitting out on the bench that him and Vanellope used to stay on everyday side by side, waiting for the arcade to open. He had actually been trying to get a hold of her for a while—and, in reality, he was worried about her despite the situation going on where he was. He figured that since he had no active job anymore, he could actually just go back to the Internet and stay there. It would be fine now, considering there was no responsibility for him at the arcade anymore. He could cross over to the online world just as Vanellope had, and they would never have to be apart ever again.

But he knew he wouldn't be leaving Game Central Station willingly anytime soon. People were here that needed him more than Vanellope did at the moment. The handyman, normally sprightly and always wearing a warm smile, had succumbed to a state of dreary despair. Ralph, too, had become fallen, as a pain had rooted deep in his heart. Not only had he been unable to save the Nicelanders that had been lost in the rubble, but his home as well. And Ralph swore that he wasn't going to be leaving Felix who was feeling the same type of pain any time soon.

With all of this newly-found time on his massive hands, the wrecker could not help but suddenly understand Vanellope's logic. _Don't you think there's something more than this?_ Her voice was on repeat in his mind. All he wanted to do was run away from this place that was now incredibly haunting, when it was once the place where he loved to live. There was just too much time to think, too much time to do nothing.

Ralph had been leaning back, waiting up for the sunrise. It would probably be coming up soon, but who knew if he was right? Time seemed to go so much more slowly during the two weeks of him being homeless. With Vanellope and his job, time flew by as if it never existed to begin with. Now, with nothing to look forward to, no purpose, no home, and the numerous lives that had been lost hanging over his head, Ralph couldn't tell one moment from the next. Everything seemed like a blur from reality.

The entirety of Game Central Station was looking like a Black Friday event gone wrong. Some had propped out beds or little tents that were strewn about in the station. Or the brave decided to sleep on the bare floor with nothing. But everyone was outside of their selective games out of fear they too would meet the same nasty fate that the deceased Nicelanders had.

Next to him on the bench, Felix and Calhoun were soundly sleeping. The Sugar Rush Racers had clambered all around them, snuggled up around the ones they called parents. Felix was sitting up, leaning his ahead against the armrest of the bench, while Calhoun was on her side, her head in his lap. Taffyta had squeezed her way between them, and the other racers managed to fill up the rest of the available space.

Ralph was glad they all could get a good night's rest, because the only time they looked content was when they were asleep. Since things were in such disarray, it wasn't a shock that everyone was stressed and terrified of what would happen in the future. The day prior, there was a scene outside of Sugar Rush that was difficult even for Ralph to watch.

 _Candlehead was gripping Taffyta's wrist, and fear was clear in her huge eyes as she yelled, "We can't go in there Taff! What if—what if—!"_

 _"We have a job to do, Candlehead, get a hold of yourself!" Taffyta rounded on her, the strawberry racer's frown creasing. "What, you don't think I'm scared too? Because I am!"_

 _The arguing continued to ensue until a mostly concerned, but also a tad bit aggravated Calhoun stepped in to calm the two of them down._

 _"This isn't right, Ralph," Felix's voice drifted over to the wrecker, his blue eyes set on the scene they were watching from afar, "no one should be scared to be in their games."_

 _"It's unfair." Ralph replied just as Candlehead jumped up to wrap her arms around Calhoun's neck as she started to cry._

Where he currently was sitting, feeling restless and tired, the wrecker couldn't help but feel responsible. Maybe if he had done something faster, sooner, or hadn't been dillydallying—there was so many factors playing into Ralph's own mental distress. He just couldn't get the dead Nicelanders out of his mind. They wouldn't be dead if he had just _done_ something sooner. No one would be _afraid_ if he had done something.

And at this rate, he realized that this Christmas would be so much gloomier without Vanellope around. She never answered any of his calls, to which he could only assume was confirmation that this would be the first Christmas without her in seven years. Sometimes not even getting a message back would hurt. But the wrecker had gotten used to it. As long as she was safe, well, that was all that mattered to him.

Ralph's mind hadn't shut off for two weeks, but for the first time since then, he was actually growing tired enough to sleep, especially with the comfort of being around those that he trusted the most. Their breaths were calm and tranquil—and Ralph could only smile at his two friends who were surrounded by the assemblage of racers. He gave a gentle exhale before he closed his eyes, leaning his head back.

While the thought of dying in an unplugging had become a very real threat, things weren't so bad when everyone was together in Game Central Station.

At least, that's what Ralph had thought.

After a while of getting some much needed shut-eye, he could smell something strange. It made his nose crinkle, and he reached up to rub it before resting his hand back down in his lap. Ralph grumbled at being woken up, and sighed as he readjusted himself.

He nearly had fallen asleep again when his eyes shot open as the smell was quickly recognized.

It wasn't something that was typically familiar—though, there were quite a few games that did have this element within them at the arcade.

"Fire. . ." Ralph murmured slowly, processing what he was saying for a moment. "Psst. . . Felix. . . _Felix_." The wrecker reached over to shake his companion's shoulder.

Felix jolted slightly as his eyes popped open, and he turned as he reached up to rub them.

"Ralph, for Pete's sake, what time is it?" Felix chided him right away. "And keep your voice down, you'll wake the kids. Oh my _land_ —who on Earth has a fire going at this hour? Don't they know that it's dangerous to do that here in Game C—" he cut himself off when he saw the alarm on Ralph's face.

Slowly but surely the handyman's own alarm swept over him like a wave.

And then, a crackle.

Both Felix and Ralph's heads turned around to see that the entrance to Dance Dance Revolution was ablaze, and quickly spreading. The two could not waste a single moment. They knew they would have to act quickly this time around.

" _Everyone_!" Ralph's voice began to bellow as he stood up on the bench. "Get up! _Get up_!"

And like a chain reaction going off, the other game characters started to come to. What they were greeted with was not a nice wake up call, but instead a horrible threat. There were cries of shock, and an immediate panic swept over the arcade. As the flames started to lick at the two nearby games, Ralph knew what had to happen.

Calhoun had stirred, too, but hadn't said a single word—instead, she was just as stunned as Ralph and Felix had been. She stood up just as her children started to stir as well, and she stared at the threat that was not in their control.

No one started off by questioning the fire. They would later, but not now.

"We have to go to the Internet." Ralph decided in a split-second decision.

"How are we going to get everyone out of here in time?" Felix asked, looking to his brother for any sort of guidance.

"Getting them to the Wifi plug is a start!" Ralph said, talking louder over the uproar of cries and shouts of confusion and fear.

There was three gunshots that fired up at the ceiling, and everyone's heads turned toward the source of the sound. Calhoun, looking disheveled and still half asleep, was looking at Ralph with her piercing blue eyes.

"We follow what Wreck-It says. Everyone evacuate to the Internet!" she barked, turning to look the crowd of characters in their eyes as her gaze swept across the crowd.

There was no delay.

Hundreds of panicked, screaming game characters started to make a run for it. The three out of the core four started to book it as well, making sure they had all fourteen racers in tow. Ralph, however, had plans to stay behind and make sure everyone had gotten out okay.

The fire had made its way to the ceiling of Game Central Station, eating away at anything it could find. Ralph naturally began to question this—he didn't know much about fires, or how they worked, but he was almost sure it shouldn't have started out of nowhere like this, and it was moving at such fast speeds as well.

One half of Game Central Station could no longer be seen, as it was being consumed by flames. Ralph pulled out his phone when he saw that the flames were approaching the entrance to the Internet plug. He dialed Vanellope as he ran with the others, desperate now to get a hold of her. There was a genuine fear that had surged up inside of him.

As usual—there was only the voicemail available to leave a message on. He hurried as he started to talk.

"Vanellope! Listen, I—" but his eyes widened slightly as he noticed no picture was coming up. Instead, only static, as though the wifi had gone out entirely. His heart began to pound as he questioned whether or not their only way out had been destroyed.

He called again, and the same happened. He dialed again, and hoped that something different would come up, and it did. There was immense relief as he wasn't hit with static, but instead a hologram—though still a bit cloudy.

"Kid, you wouldn't believe what's going on over here. Listen, there's no time to explain," Ralph nearly gasped as a piece of the ceiling came crashing down and just missed crushing him and the others, "but we're trying to get out. Game Central Station is in trouble. It makes no sense, I know, but something happened. The outlet. . ." he thought for a moment what the causation could possibly be as he took a guess, "There was too much overheating that's what we're thinking happened. I just wanted to call you and tell you that if we don't get out of here, which might be a possibility. . . that I love you, Vanellope. We all do."

He choked on the smoke as it became unbearable. He paused a moment to catch his breath—preparing to break into a run again until he heard a scream. Immediately his head turned and he saw Crumblelina and Gloyd were hugging onto each other as the flames got closer and another piece of the roof started to come down, threatening to land right on top of them.

Ralph ran toward the two racers and lifted one closed fist into the air. The piece of roof fell into it and shattered into multiple pieces, falling harmlessly around the racers and wrecker. The two children, terrified out of their minds, only looked up in shock before Ralph scooped them up and began to run. If anyone had asked Ralph if he envisioned himself protecting a pair of the kids who tormented his best friend six years ago, he wouldn't have been able to answer in a positive way.

Calhoun and Felix were ushering the other kids through the entrance.

"There you two are! We told you not to stray away!" Calhoun was immediately the one to start reprimanding the two children as Ralph set them down.

"Come on, brother. Everyone's out. We have to make a run for it." Felix encouraged. "They're all boarding to go online now."

"Felix. . . I just gotta make sure." Ralph said slowly. Felix understood and nodded. He ran off to join the others and make sure that things were going well.

Ralph only turned back to watch the flames consume Game Central Station. He slowly started shaking his head, beyond words at what he was witnessing.

This was his home. The place that he had lived for nearly thirty-eight years. And it was all going up in smoke. For a few more moments he watched, the fire reflected in his eyes as the strain the air became too much for him to bear. He called out for anyone one last time.

Then, the wrecker turned and ran through the smoke that had now begun to cloud up the inside of the entrance. He hurried toward the all too familiar place, knowing that once he was able to get inside the Internet, he would never come back to Litwak's. There would be nothing to come back to, after all.

But when he entered the room, he noticed everyone was gone. Everyone.

Felix wouldn't have just left him there, Calhoun either. Ralph, still choking on the fumes of the flames, waved the air in front of him to get a better clear view through the accumulated smoke. He squinted as his eyes stung and watered and he called out in the Wifi room.

"Felix? Calhoun? Kids? _Anyone_?"

He was met with silence. There was no way they had all boarded and gone online that fast. No way. So where were they?

Ralph wouldn't get another second to think when out of nowhere he saw something run from his peripheral vision. He turned to follow what it was, but he was too slow as something that he could not see slammed into the back of his head. The impact was so harsh that it knocked him off his feet as he fell forward onto the ground, forcing himself to open his eyes as the entire place started to spin.

He saw feet walking toward him as he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore—his spinning head and smoke-filled lungs were too much for him to take anymore.

The world went black a moment later, but Ralph swore he could hear someone sneer something just before he went out like a light.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Hey guys!

I'd just like to first apologize for my lack of updating. This past month has been... a _ride_. I've been all out of sorts, sidetracked with lots of stuff going on in my personal life. Due to that, I hadn't had a real chance to sit down and focus on writing with all of it going on. Thankfully now that it's all passed, finally I'm back in the swing of things. I would also like to mention that the support received on the last chapter blew my mind and really warmed my heart. I was smiling so much as I read the reviews and saw how well it had been received. It's funny, I was actually a tad nervous to post that chapter haha.

 **Reviews;**

 **Guest** : Oh _yes_! Don't worry, I'm definitely continuing and finishing this story. And thank you so much!

 **lalalei** : That's a fantastic question, I promise all will be revealed in due time hehe. I hope so too ;)

 **TurquoiseTriangle** : Yeah, he's been through some stuff to say the least, poor guy.

 **PresidentTaffyta** : Me too ;) haha

 **DaBlueVanellope** : Oh my gosh, thank you so much. You have no idea what that means to me. It just makes me so happy to hear that.

 **Guest #1** : Hey #1! Thank you so much, and oh gosh I'm sorry for the feels! I appreciate your continued support more than you know.

 **crankyman7** : I really appreciate the honesty haha. I truly thought that Vanellope was wildly out of character in RBTI, so in this story I suppose I'm trying to make her more like her self again, because the Vanellope _I_ know wouldn't have just thrown everyone away—especially with a lack of goodbye—and be ultimately okay with it.

 _Is_ Double Dan's cousin the Globglogabgalab? Considering that's all I could think of the second I laid eyes on him, yes. Yes he is. And ah, I see what you mean, though my purpose with that was to hint at something bigger that I was planning to reveal in full soon. To be honest, I do tend to be a rusher because I get in over my head on wanting to go down the line to the _good stuff_ which is something I've always struggled with—though from me looking at my past writings, I have improved on that a lot. It definitely is still an active struggle, though, and I hope to further my handling on it in the future.

Oh, it definitely can be a problem. Even if disliked RBTI's out of character portrayals of Ralph and Vanellope and the road the movie went down, I did love the new characters that were introduced. It was such a shame we saw so little of them, but because of that, like you said, they definitely aren't as well-written. Ironically enough, I thought that if I threw out all of the information that would expound upon both Shank and Yesss in this story, it would feel rushed or seem like an info dump. I've been plotting for specific scenes to happen where things come out naturally, but have thrown out hints at what's to come. And oh yeah, I agree with that—it's definitely for what the words are used for.

I know I'm far from a perfect writer, and I'm definitely still working on improving in certain areas! So I truly appreciate your critiques, as it has ultimately led me to think a bit more carefully about where I should go next.

 **billiesavocado** : Ahaha I'm sorry! I have a bad habit of doing that. And hey, it's all good! Thank you so much. By the way, I love your username, it's great.

 **DaddlerTheDalek** : Indeed.

 **bigrigbryce** : Oh, I'm so glad you think so! And honestly, I do too—but I want a third that will actually fix what the second did... since they ripped up the perfect ending we got in the first. :( Thank you sooo so much though, I appreciate your reviews more than you know!

 **Banoffe de Fairikaik** : Sorry for the wait, but at least you don't have to wait any longer! :')

 **OwlsCantRead** : Honestly, I might've laughed a little bit at the joke but it shocked me that they actually cracked it. It seemed almost shallow to me. I would like to think of them as sympathetic about that rather than playing it off as a joke.

 **PutMoneyInThyPurse** : Okay, so your reviews literally made my day. I was smiling so much while reading them. _Thank you so much_ doesn't really express how much I enjoyed your reviews. _You_ rock and I think that _you're_ amazing and I just love you so much! :) And hehe, I'm glad that someone picked up on it ;)

* * *

 _Chapter 6_

* * *

 _Shank's eyes were closed._

 _She took a deep breath in, and as a breeze licked at her face and rustled her hair a bit, she immediately knew where she was. As her eyes slowly opened, she found herself in her favorite place atop the hills that overlooked the heart of Slaughter Race, the best game in the entire world. The edges of her mouth curled upward as she surveyed the city she called home, taking in the view as her entire form relaxed._

 _"What are you thinking about?" a voice asked from beside her, and Shank perked when she instantly recognized it._

 _It wasn't a voice she had heard in a long, long time, though she did not feel sadness. Instead, she was happy, though she could not shake her surprise at the appearance._

 _The poster girl of Slaughter Race turned her head to see another woman beside her. She had short, bubblegum-colored hair, done up in two messy buns while a few tufts were left free to form side bangs. Her pale face had a bit of a shadow cast over it due to the setting sun that was now lighting up their game's sky with flourishing colors of reds and oranges._

 _She was leaning forward slightly as she stared into Shank's eyes, which looked bright as the golden hour sunlight reflected off of them. The surprise seemed to peel off of the brunette when she took in the other woman's appearance, and her smile stretched a bit further. She had so many questions, but she dare not ask and ruin the moment. Things like, where have you been? Why do you usually run away? What's making you stay this time?_

 _It had been ages since she had been sitting side by side with Shiv. Shank had almost forgot what she looked like. Though this was a wonderful memory she was living in her mind. There was barely any salvation from the horrors that normally haunted her dream realm, so this was a nice change in pace. While Shank was conscious of the fact that this wasn't reality, it felt like it at the same time._

 _The brunette started to laugh gently, and she leaned her head back as she relished in how great being there in that moment felt. She had her legs crossed on the grass atop the hill the two were sitting upon, and only a foot of space was between them. Another breeze picked up, grazing at the pair's faces softly, and Shank's head turned to look at her company again._

 _Her left hand reached to the side, and slowly found its way on top of one that did not belong to her._

 _"I'm thinking about how beautiful the view is. Isn't it obvious?" Shank asked with a knowing smile._

 _The other's face immediately lit up, and her mouth curled into a grin. Her hand easily intertwined into Shank's._

 _"It's hard to believe we've been online for three months now." Shiv mentioned, her fly aways swaying in the gentle breeze._

 _Shank was busy studying her face before she processed what was being said. So that's how far back they were? She only responded as she was supposed to, "Well, it definitely has been a wild ride so far. I think I'm just relieved that some of the time-limited quests have passed, and now we finally have a bit of time to sit back and relax."_

 _Shiv only snorted, shaking her head, "There will be more where that came from. Seems like with every quest, we're supposed to be pushed farther and farther apart. Don't you think?"_

 _Shank briefly paused as she finished taking in all of her best friend's details. There was something on her mind. Something she so desperately needed to say, that she had to spit out. But instead, she replied as she knew she should._

 _"Being rivals might not be easy, but remember what you said? Screw the coding."_

 _"Yeah,_ screw the coding _! We can do whatever we want!" Shiv's voice raised, and her voice briefly echoed off the quiet hills. Shank only shook her head, a smile on her lips._

 _There was a moment of silence as the two of them watched the sun continuing to set, but it was broken not even a minute later as the two's heads spun toward one another._

 _"Shiv, I—"_

 _"Shank, I—"_

 _Both of them paused, and Shank smiled while Shiv giggled._

 _"You first." Shank said while the other girl recollected herself._

 _Shiv took in a breath as she continued to beam._

 _"Shank," she said, and there was a still a smile from the brunette, "I need you to wake up."_

 _That wasn't what Shank was expecting to hear at all, and the edges of her mouth began to form a frown. Shiv was still smiling at her, as though nothing she had said was out of the ordinary whatsoever. But Shank was now tense, feeling a sense of disturbance wash over her. Her fingers twitched._

 _"What?" she asked, taken aback as she let go of her hand._

 _"Wake up." Shiv repeated._

 _Shank nearly bit her tongue off as she was struck by an unexpected rush of pain that started from the top of her spine and reached the bottom, nearly making her bend forward in reaction._

 _She had squeezed her eyes shut, but now she reopened them as she took in a shaky breath after having held in a gasp of surprise._

 _"Stop." Shank pleaded in desperation, shakily exhaling._

 _"Get up." Shiv encouraged her again, and this time, Shank could not suppress her cry of pain as her insides began to cramp up. The ghost of Shank's past only watched her, and the brunette could only grasp at the grass beneath her in frustration. "I'm afraid it's time for you to wake up, Shank."_

 _"I don't want you to go again!" Shank yelled at her, just before another wave of pain came over her. Her insides felt like they were ablaze. An intense pain had found its way in her abdomen, leaving her winded and breathless. A panic came over her and she turned, her hands clumsily coming down upon Shiv's, and she grasped them both tightly in her quivering hands as she tugged them toward her. Shank searched her face desperately, "You can't go again. Not again."_

 _Shank was so, so naive to believe that she could have Shiv back again, even if just for a moment. Her best friend, the person who meant the most to her. It was too cruel of a reminder that she was gone, and she wasn't coming back._

 _"I'm sorry," Shiv said apologetically as she blinked and looked right into Shank's eyes, seeming unphased, "but you have to—"_

"— _Wake up_!" there was a bark in her ear, and Shank's eyes shot open as she came out of her dream-turned-nightmare.

Whoever was there next to her head a second ago had instantly backed off seeing Shank now awake. Startled, she quickly tried to sit up to see where she was and who was with her.

Immediately, she regret this as she let out a scream of pain. The first thing she noticed was that her limbs felt like they were on fire. And just like in her dream, there was this rooted pain in her abdomen where the virus had entered her. Jolts of shock were running up and down her spine, making her regret ever moving. Her head was also pounding. There was no time for her to ponder on what she had just seen in her sleep, nor did she want to think about it for a long time.

She closed her eyes and rolled onto her side, feeling paralyzed as she could no longer move as her hands managed to make their way over her stomach as she held onto it. Her teeth were clenched so tightly they could have broken all at once with the amount of force that was being exerted onto them.

Her memories of the last time she'd been awake quickly flooded to her as she remembered everything. And that's when she remembered she wasn't alone.

Shank forced her eyes open again, and as the pain subsided for a moment, she rose one hand against the side of her head and used the other to push herself up. Admittedly, her vision was still blurry, but was quickly clearing up. Two shapes at the other end of the room, or rather, the prison cell, became outlined as people a moment later.

Through her haze Shank saw they were at the furthest part of the cell, up against the bars.

One of them was a tall, blonde woman, while the other was a fairly short man, not even half of the blonde's height. Both of them were frowning and looked like they were ready to fight her. She could hardly process what they looked like in full when she saw a gun was being aimed right at her head.

"If you move even an _inch_ , I'll blow your head off faster than you can say 'mercy.'"

Instantly feeling more on edge, the racer stiffened as her blood ran cold. She knew there was nothing but seriousness in that woman's eyes as they pierced into her and threatened to rip her apart. They did not break eye contact with each other as Shank tried to come up with some sort of explanation, though she did not know why the two strangers were there face to face with her and appeared ready to tussle with her.

Shank readied herself to come up with anything to say, and she opened her mouth slightly as she plotted it in her mind. _Hey, the name's Shank, I'm from Slaughter Race, and did I mention that Turbo is insane for planting a virus in me?_

What came out instead was a strangled yelp as more pain flared up one again from inside of her, and she fell forward as the intensity seized her abdomen.

Through her torment, Shank nearly missed the distinct sound of a gunshot going off, to which she gasped and didn't dare move again. She was sprawled against the ground once more, and she forced her head to tilt up only in the slightest to see why she hadn't gotten her head blown off as she had been unkindly promised.

Through the messy strands of hair that were hanging in her eyes, she could see that the couple was staring at each other. The man had shoved the gun upward with both hands, and it had only just missed its target, as he was still positioning the weapon at the ceiling. The woman did not look amused in the slightest at the interference.

"Tammy, cease fire!" he pleaded, and she was staring at him with a hard look. "We have no idea what her intentions are."

"Yeah, but you heard what that scum said."

"We can't trust him."

Their mild bickering continued as Shank forced herself to keep awake as her head continued to pound, and everything started to click in her mind when she recognized the nickname that she had once heard before. _Where_ had she heard it before? Where had she heard about a couple who had matched the criteria that she was seeing here? And then, it hit her.

"Sergeant Calhoun and Fix-It Felix?" the racer forced out, hoping that she was correct in her judgement.

Instantly, the pair's eyes widened slightly as they stopped mid-argument, and slowly turned to look at her.

"You. . . _know_ us?" Felix asked warily.

Shank weakly nodded before answering, "Vanellope raves about you both."

Immediately the two of them seemed to let their guard down a little. Calhoun slowly put her gun down hesitantly, though Felix kept one watchful eye on it.

"So who _are_ you then if you aren't an imminent danger to us?" Calhoun demanded, still peering at Shank with suspicion in her squinted, crystal eyes.

"My name's Shank."

Calhoun's eyes widened slightly, but she frowned again before she responded, "I see. The one who got Vanellope to leave everything behind."

Shank's eyes widened at these words. From what she had been told, Calhoun was tough and meant business and wasn't afraid to make that clear. Felix, on the other hand, was the sweet hero from Ralph's game—a very understanding and kind person who balanced out the edge that Calhoun had. She had been warned by Vanellope in the past once before.

" _Just a little advice, Shanky_ — _I'd never recommend getting on the sarge's bad side if you plan on meeting her. She can be, you know, a bit trigger happy sometimes, but hey, you'll love her!_ "

Of course, she'd not taken that as seriously as she was taking it now. From the look on both of their faces, these two were seeing her as a threat, and that was something that had to be changed. Quickly.

"I. . . did not influence Vanellope's decision at all." Shank tried to clarify, "She made that choice all by herself. Listen, it might not seem like you're able to trust me. . . but right now, all we have is each other, and I definitely trust you guys if you two are really close to V. Any friends of hers are friends of mine."

There was a moment of silence between the three. Shank had a pleading look in her eyes. It was easy for Felix to recognize her desperation, while it was much harder for Calhoun to be convinced. Felix was the more trusting of the two, but he was no idiot. He had seen the likes of manipulation from Turbo and now knew what true evil intentions looked like. And he certainly could not see any bad intent from the desperate look that was in the stranger's eyes.

The silence was deafening as the handyman decided on what he should say.

"She's right." Felix came to a conclusion, to which Calhoun was left reeling.

" _What_?"

"Think about it Tammy, all we have is the three of us, and it doesn't seem like she means any harm. If we can work together, we might be able to get out of this mess unscathed. Aside from that, she's Vanellope's new caretaker, and we ought to think that's respectable enough to lend a little bit of trust to her. Besides, now's not the time for personal feelings." Felix pointed out to his wife, and Calhoun huffed.

But she clearly was now thinking about what he said from the thoughtful look on her face. Shank was still frozen in place, waiting for her to say something. Felix was obviously hoping for a positive response from the look in his eyes.

"Alright, Pintsize, but if she makes it clear she wants to hurt us, I won't hesitate."

Shank felt like she could breathe again. That was probably the best it was going to get, and clearly, Felix was satisfied as he smiled up at her.

"I knew you'd come around, Ladylove." He turned to Shank and took a step forward, "This will come out a bit insensitive, but. . . what's wrong with you?"

He motioned to her body, which was still a bit tensed up.

"Turbo. . ." she trailed off, feeling uneasiness roll down her spine. "There was this virus that he had. Apparently he was saving it for Vanellope, but instead he put it inside _me_ —"

She was cut off as another searing pain exploded inside of her abdomen and her words were lost in a shaky gasp, and she slammed one fist against the ground as she tried to get through it.

Felix and Calhoun were both caught off guard by this now that they had gotten past their caution, unsure of what either of them should do or could do in a situation like this.

"Oh my land." Felix whispered.

"Let me get this straight," Calhoun said to her husband without taking her eyes off Shank, "that creep told us she was a danger to us when she can barely move?"

"Or. . . maybe the virus didn't progress as quickly as he thought it would." Felix looked up at her, and Calhoun grimaced slightly when she realized that was probably the case.

Shank's pain subsided again, and she really put what was left of her unrattled mind to thinking. Internally, the virus was killing her, and she hoped that wasn't in a literal sense. Until she could get a proper explanation, if ever received, she would figure the virus was very similar to what had ravaged across the Internet a while ago. And she knew _very_ well what that virus sought to do after watching one of the people closest to her succumb to it.

It would corrupt her from the inside out.

She had no idea where this, as Calhoun had rightfully called him, 'creep' had gotten the virus from, why he had it, or how different it was from the virus that had infected and destroyed one of her most treasured people. However, she knew she had to find out how to stop it—that is, if she could, and in time. The thing didn't seem like it was very patient with wanting to progress in whatever its purpose was. . . which Shank, of course, assumed was corruption. She broke from her thoughts when she had finally processed what the couple was saying just moments ago.

"What are you two talking about?" Shank asked through gritted teeth, still being seized by the aftershock of her wave of pain.

"Well. . . when Turbo dropped you off here, all he told us was to try and stay alive." Felix explained.

"Insinuating that you were going to kill us." Calhoun chimed in.

"That's why we were so cautious, you'll have to forgive us. If only we had met under different circumstances. . ."

"Trust me, you're fine." Shank replied, trying to alleviate any guilt or worries.

She was laying on her back now, her eyes closed as she finally caught her breath. Her heart was pounding, and she, for the first time in a very long time, felt scared. One hand came and rested over her stomach where the virus had entered. What would happen to her if the virus _did_ make its way through her code and corrupt her? What if she _was_ outside of her game when and if the time came for a regeneration? No, _no_ , she already knew the answer to that, and she didn't want to face it.

She would die.

A moment later, Shank was broken from her thoughts as she noticed her upper half was being lifted up from under her arms, and she was carefully being dragged across the floor by a still-wary Calhoun, who was half crouched as she navigated backwards.

Gently she was leaned back against the bars of the 'cell,' which wasn't very comfortable, though it was better than nothing. They were enclosed on all four sides and it was fairly claustrophobic. There was no means of escape since the bars were so close together, and there was a roof atop their prison as well. Shank, if she wasn't this pained, would have been trying to find any means of escape. But for now, she was only seeking bodily peace that she knew would not come.

She forced herself to refocus on Vanellope's friends who she had referred to numerous times as 'the parents she never thought she would have.' From what Vanellope had told her, they were extremely trustworthy. In fact, so trustworthy she trusted them more than her own subjects. That made Shank feel safe—after all, from the stories she'd been told, these two did help Vanellope out in her time of need alongside Ralph.

"Why are you guys here?" Shank asked.

"Turbo." Felix's answer was simple.

"We lost our home thanks to him." Calhoun's lip curled at the mere reminder of what played out at Litwak's. "We were driven away, and he was waiting to trap us in our weakest moment like a wolf overlooking a flock of sheep, waiting for its time to strike."

A pit of guilt opened up inside of Shank, only making her feel worse about not allowing Vanellope to listen to her voicemails sooner.

"How did he pull it off?"

"Turbo. . . tends to have a legacy with destroying things beyond repair." Felix answered hesitantly, grimacing a little as an uncomfortable memory from long ago popped into his mind. "He hasn't told us how yet, though now we have information that can help us tie it together."

"What information?" Shank asked.

"Since we know that you've got a nasty bug crawling around inside of you," Calhoun responded, looking disgusted, "we now know Turbo toys around with viruses. Doesn't shock me at all, I would never put such dirty work past him."

Felix only nodded in agreement before going on, "You see, the games at the arcade were acting up, being glitchy, becoming overheated. Perhaps it's linked somehow. It's quite possible his true intentions were to destroy our home. . . jiminey jaminey, I don't want to think that Turbo would want to try and get rid of the _entirety_ of Game Central Station out of revenge."

Shank's blood came to a boil as she heard this. Her fists tightened, though she did not move.

"Ralph told us about the disarray that took place when he and Vanellope were here together. About the insecurity virus that he went and got himself like a complete idiot, but still, a Wreck-It thing to do. What happened to. . . _your_ game, sounds all too familiar as to what was happening to the games back at the arcade." Calhoun shrugged, though her tone and facial expression did not hide her agitation.

"That could be it. . . why, that certainly sounds like that could be the reason! Our game became very buggy right before it became too unstable and had to be unplugged." Felix said, and a haunted look appeared on his face as unpleasant memories resurfaced in his mind.

Shank could only shake her head slowly, her mind feeling like a runaway train that wouldn't come to a halt. This info was all too overwhelming for her, and especially in her current state. She tried to land on one thought and push away her fears, concerns, and confusion for the time being.

"I'm just. . . so glad you two are okay. V thinks you two are dead, and I've. . . I've never seen her so distraught about something, not even when she was caught in making a decision about leaving her game. That choice was rough for her."

Felix and Calhoun, who were both on either side of Shank, immediately looked to one another. There seemed to be a flicker of pain that crossed each of their expressions.

"We're more worried about her rather than ourselves." Felix clarified, just as Shank winced while another jolt of affliction seized her.

"Why?" Shank forced out, gritting her teeth as the gnawing pain crawled up her spine once more.

There was a moment of hesitation from both arcade game characters. The sergeant took it upon herself to be the one to say it.

"He wants to kill Vanellope." Calhoun finally informed her. What little breath Shank had in her chest seemed to leave her, and not because of pain this time. A determination seized her with no hesitation.

"I. . . _won't_ let that happen." Shank said, and she started to try and push herself up. She wasn't very weak yet, but the tremors of pain that wracked her body were making it difficult to do just about anything but falter back as if she were in a state of paralysis.

She wanted to _curse_. No, she wanted to scream. Frustration was quickly coming over her, and she could only fall back against the bars, not having done anything but made herself more tired.

"While your resolve is fantastic, you should really rest." Felix suggested, and put one of his hands on her own.

"How can I rest when Vanellope is in danger?" Shank demanded.

"We're all in danger, but none of us can do a thing about it," Calhoun pointed out, "all we can do is have hope. We've been worrying about _all_ the kids."

Shank was surprised to hear that.

"You mean the little Sugar Rush racers?" Shank asked, to which there was a nod from both in response. "Doesn't. . . doesn't this Turbo guy _like_ them? He did stick around them for fifteen years after all. You think he's got them locked up somewhere?"

"Let's hope not. We have no idea what's happened to them because we were separated when we got captured. We're very worried." Felix said, his hands wrung together. This only heightened the amount of questions Shank wanted to ask.

There was a slam of frustration from the sergeant on the bars behind her as she rose one fist above her head and smashed her knuckles straight into the metal.

"If he's done something to them. . . if he's so much as touched a singular hair on their pretty little heads, it's game over for him the second we're out of here." Calhoun hissed.

"But Shank does have a point, Tammy. We can only pray that he won't hurt them." Felix tried, but she was far from convinced.

"Turbo has made it clear he isn't above killing a child. What makes you think he'll stop at them?" she asked.

This silenced Felix, and Shank felt a pit of uneasiness root itself in her stomach.

"This Turbo is much more dangerous than I previously thought if he can even manage to get _Ralph_ locked up." Shank muttered.

A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered that giant, freaky looking form that was the monster who tormented Vanellope for fifteen years. She nearly got caught up in her thoughts again before a voice spoke up.

" _What_ did you say?"

Shank was caught off guard by Calhoun's tone. She was staring in shock, and as Shank turned her head, she saw that Felix was also stunned. Instantly, she understood.

"You guys didn't know Ralph was okay?"

" _Jiminey jaminey_!" Felix cried, and he put a hand over his heart, relief crossing his expression.

"We thought he was dead." Calhoun informed her, the ends of her mouth twitching up as she looked at her overjoyed husband who was grinning in glee.

"He was locked up, just like you guys." Shank replied. That's when her eyes widened. "Oh, Yesss!"

"Yes what?" the sergeant raised an eyebrow, but Shank was too sidetracked to respond.

The last thing she had remembered was Yesss being slammed, hard enough to seriously hurt her. The rage that had flared up in Shank after seeing her limp form had given her so much adrenaline to attack the monster that she hadn't even thought of rushing to her friend's side. She felt sick.

"Is Ralph being locked up really a thing to be celebrating?" Felix tilted his head slightly, a perturbed look on his face.

"No, I mean Yesss. She's my friend. That's literally her name."

The married couple exchanged another look with each other. The confusion in their faces was enough for Shank to launch into her explanation. And from there, she started to retell the story of all that had happened. How Vanellope had desperately tried to get back home to the arcade for Christmas—which, ironically, should've been in a couple of days. . . or perhaps less, or could've already passed, since the three's perception of time had become lost in their imprisonment.

As she explained it to them, she couldn't help but think about where Yesss was, and even Spamley. If they were okay or not. As the pain bit at her throughout her story, it was a cruel reminder that she might not get the chance to confirm whether or not they were alive.

Once her relaying was over, the three talked it over and reflected for a brief period. Shank purposely left out the bit about not letting Vanellope listen to the messages she was sent, or that the child basically hated her right now. That would not help her case of fully earning their trust. And once they finished talking it over, the couple got up to investigate their cell a bit more, because now with a possible ticking time bomb being locked up with them, they clearly wanted to find a way out.

Shank's mind just couldn't stop racing. She was not a person that was so easily daunted—that naturally was in her code. She was supposed to be fearless, cunning, a natural leader with confidence, but no boisterousness or egotism—rather, she was kind, and that too was in her code. But now, she was afraid of what her fate would be. Her confidence in being able to restore the situation had been shredded after the encounter with the enemy. As it was, the entire thing seemed to be playing right into his hands.

It was clear that whatever virus was put into Shank's body, it was going to corrupt her and make her into a monster just like he was, if he anticipated her lashing out at Calhoun and Felix—no, going so far as to betray her natural code and _kill them_. That was the last thing she wanted—to be a monster, to be feared. In the past, Shank had cursed her code, that it didn't control her and that she could do anything she wanted, and act any way she wanted. But now, she was disturbed at the very thought of her coding being tampered with, whether it be corrupted or destroyed entirely.

She was pulled from her thoughts as she looked down at her shirt—her jacket had opened somewhere through her trauma—and immediately, she felt alarm. Her mind had been zoned out while Felix and Calhoun were distracted, trying to see anywhere beyond the bars of their prison.

As far as they could see, there was nothing but darkness. There was some light—from where they did not know—that dimly lit up what they could see of the room, but there was no sight of any walls. It felt like a strange, lonely abyss.

"Say, Shortstack—looks like this one's a little loose." Calhoun said, pressing one hand against a shaky bar. Though it seemed unsecured, it would not budge much as she put her weight onto it. It only made a clackity sound and refused to move very far. "Think your hammer could do something to that?"

"Tammy, don't be silly," Felix's cheeks became slightly reddened as an old memory of himself popped up in his mind, and he could still hear himself demanding why he fixed everything he touched, "it'll only make it stronger."

"Right. I didn't think about that."

"Neither did I." Felix muttered.

Calhoun did not hear him, and instead she only kicked one foot against the base of the insecure bar. "How're you holding up back there?" she called over her shoulder, her eyes not leaving the metal.

But Shank did not respond.

The racer's eyes were wide and her shirt was lifted up just enough to see her stomach. Where healthy skin once was now remained a sickly looking hole where the virus had burrowed its way inside of her body, and the skin around it had become greyed. While the hole was only skin deep and not very big, there was no blood—instead, there was a black liquid dripping out that took on the same characteristics of blood, yet had no sharp smell.

Shank dared to press her pointer finger against the toxic-looking fluid, and as she lifted her hand back up to examine it, it raced down her finger, leaving a burning sensation along the side as it went. She was broken out of her stun as Felix and Calhoun were about to turn around, and Shank frantically pulled her shirt back down to cover the wound.

"Good! I'm holding up good." Shank quickly lied just as they looked at her, and she plastered a nervous smile on her face.

At first, they seemed unconvinced, but they went back to their own discussion a moment later.

Shank, on the other hand, was having a heart attack on the inside. She studied the blackness that trailed down her finger. She ignored the burning sensation as she noticed how warm it was, and she felt disgust as it trickled into her palm.

That's when she finally knew she was in serious trouble, but Shank could not succumb to this. She was going to help her new friends, find Yesss and Ralph, save Vanellope from the fate that Turbo was trying to set up for her. She would _not_ bow her head in defeat and go out without a bang.

She was going to make him pay for everything, if it was the last thing she did. She refused to lay down and die here in the cell.

Shank wiped her hand against her jeans and reclosed her jacket. She turned and grasped one of the bars, using it as support as she got back onto her feet.

Relief washed over her as she realized she wasn't out for the count yet as she stood up fully. Shank was going to prove to be the confident and determined leader she was programmed to be, whether anyone liked that or not.

"If we do end up escaping, where do we go from here?" Felix was in the middle of asking Calhoun.

"I'm not sure. It's like an endless nothingness stands before us." Calhoun responded.

"Let's break out first before we think about that."

The married couple nearly jumped out of their skin, as neither of them had realized Shank had come up beside Felix. But as they looked at her, there was a determination in her stature, and a serious look on her face. The focus was clear in her eyes as she looked to her two new allies. She had shifted from a desperate and uncertain woman to someone who was now bolder and made it clear she wanted to get out.

"Are you sure you shouldn't just rest?" Felix asked.

She looked at him and smiled.

"I'm sure. Though I do have one thing to say. . ." Shank trailed off in hesitation as she placed one hand against the wound on her abdomen. She closed her eyes for only a moment as she knew what she had to say, and her smile dropped off her face. As her eyes reopened, they peered straight into Calhoun's. "Whatever happens, if worst comes to worst. . . if this virus does end up progressing and I threaten to hurt anyone. . . do not hesitate to shoot me and take me out."

Felix was mortified, while Calhoun gained a newfound respect for her sudden selflessness, and gave a brief nod. Now that everyone understood, Shank was more than pleased. In the back of her mind she hoped it would never get that far.

"Alright," Shank's smile returned, "now let's work on getting out of here. Let's get a plan going."

The racer thought for a moment about her dream, the vivid images playing in her mind. It only furthered her drive to succeed in defeating the enemy.

Because even if she, too, became a ghostly memory just like Shiv, at least she would be doing it for a good cause. She swore to herself she would protect Vanellope and get her family out, no matter what happened to her or what the cost was.

The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her little sister further, and she wasn't going to let that happen.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N** :

Hey guys! I know I disappeared for a bit, so my bad. To be honest, I _knew_ this chapter _had_ to be written... but the truth is, I had a lot of fun writing it. Almost too much fun, haha. I got a little lost in it. In reality, this chapter was never meant to actually be _this_ long, but it was probably one of my favorite chapters I've written to date.

I wanted to make sure you guys get the inside scoop on a certain character I've had under wraps for a bit now. I hope that you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it—I also hope that it's worth the wait!

Something else worth saying is that this will be the last chapter I'll get out before the crazy last two weeks of college start. There might not be an update for a little while—I'll be back to writing once the semester ends (and, admittedly, I will probably write despite being so busy haha) but if I don't update for a bit, apologies in advance.

Oh, and one last thing: Happy Easter! Funny that the title has to do with Christmas, and alas, we have arrived at Easter, haha.

 **Reviews** ;

 **lalalei** : Hahaha thank you! This chapter ought to give you a bit more insight on Shank... and others. I hope so too ;)

 **TurquoiseTriangle** : All will soon become clear ;)

 **PutMoneyInThyPurse** : Oh that just makes me so happy to hear! Hahaha, oh my goodness, you're so great, I love your reviews. To answer your question, that was something I contemplated a lot during the chapter, and I actually almost incorporated it (great minds think alike!). But I figured that, if Felix's hammer can't fix Vanellope's glitch (though, I suppose we've never seen him try) then it can't fix coding to an actual character, and also that it would make getting around Shank's new problem a bit too easily haha. Maybe it'll turn up in another chapter, we'll see ;). Yes, Shiv is my OC haha, I didn't think I'd incorporate an OC into this story but I really wanted to make things... _interesting_. I'm glad you love her, you'll be seeing her a lot this chapter! Aww, your reviews are so sweet, thank you so much! I truly appreciate every word, you've made my day.

 **crankyman7** : Thank you!

 **SolarFlare579** : Hahaha no problem.

 **DaBlueVanellope** : I realize things might have gotten a bit confusing last chapter, oops, but all will be clear soon :) hehe

 **AsukaTirento** : Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it! Wow, that's an honor to hear that... thank you so, so much. To be honest, all of those are good questions, but I'm sadly unable to answer... though you will have the answers soon! Thank you again, I'm smiling so much right now. By the way, your English is wonderful so don't apologize! This language is so difficult to learn, and you're doing a fantastic job! :D

Without further ado, onto chapter 7!

* * *

 _Chapter 7_

* * *

For a moment, there was darkness.

And then, there was an overwhelming rush of sound that came head-on. At first, all the noise was too jarring to make any sense of. But slowly but surely, it started to make sense. Words were identifiable, thoughts were controllable, things were able to be comprehended. Things were. . . real.

A woman's eyes opened, and when they did, she was able to take in a breath of air. An array of smells filled her senses, whether it be smoke or mace.

As she stood right in front of the bottom of a tall, worn-looking building that cast a shadow over her, she couldn't help but feel strange about that specific identification of smell on her part. In fact, this confused her. _How_ did she know what these things smelled like? Rather, _where_ had she been moments ago? This felt right, but so foreign, too. . .

And although she wanted to let go the question of where she had come from, she could not, and it bothered her.

But in truth, she had to admit that she felt at home already, and there wasn't an ounce of uneasiness in her body.

Her eyes redirected themselves down to her outfit, and she tugged at the bottom of her leather jacket for good measure. She felt the material between her fingers for a moment, and she caught sight of her long, brown hair. She reached up to feel it when her eyes landed on her hands. For a moment she examined them before she flexed her fingers and all of her toes within her boots and then she moved all around until the act became familiar to her, and was no longer strange.

Excitement bubbled up inside of her as she turned around slowly and took in all of the surrounding buildings that were towering over her.

Her mouth slightly opened as her lips curled into a smile, and she then noticed that she had spawned on a sidewalk.

And though she had not existed a minute prior, she had _so_ much knowledge stuck in her brain. She had no chance to question where she had come from as slowly, even more information started to pour into her brain.

Shank was her name. She was in her game, otherwise known as Slaughter Race. Her purpose was to be a non-playable character and prompt players to complete quests and progress further in the game.

Well, at least _now_ she knew what her purpose was.

Two curious eyes watched as cars went up and down the street, and she realized how much she had to explore. How much potential there was in this place that was now her home.

She was the star of this game, after all, the poster girl that everyone would immediately recognize when they played. The tough but just leader who was fearless. That was who she was supposed to be.

As thoughts flew in and out of her brain, she started walking down the street. She was taking in the sights around her, staying perfectly silent as she went along. As memory after memory continued to unblock in her mind, she couldn't help but grow more and more excited. In fact, anxious. She _really_ wanted to get on the road, she was itching to drive.

But before she could continue thinking about driving, she grimaced slightly when she witnessed a wipe-out car accident and was immediately drawn from her thoughts. Her eyes widened slightly as there was an explosion from the two cars that had collided, and a puff of dark smoke blew up into the air.

As characters evacuated the cars, she could only shake her head. That would probably be the first of many accidents she would see, considering she was a street racer.

Speaking of which, _where_ was her _car_? It was clear as day in her mind what her car was supposed to look like. Though as she continued her trek down the sidewalk, she could not find it anywhere, not parked alongside the road, or not even back where she spawned.

In the meantime, she continued to examine the world around her, taking it all in. That _was_ until she heard the revving of an engine beside her, which pulled her away from her admiration of her home as she shot straight up.

"Hey! What are you, lost in your own game?" a voice called.

Shank, only just recovering from being startled, frowned as she turned toward the car.

Her mouth opened to spit a retort, but she only paused when her eyes befell the woman that had parked her car right at the edge of the sidewalk.

She was just getting out as she took the keys from the ignition, and she brushed some hair out of her face as she exited her shiny vehicle.

Instead of a leather jacket like Shank, this mystery girl wore a jean jacket around her shoulders, nothing more than a white shirt beneath—one could just barely see the faded print of a big, yellow smiley face on it—and jean shorts that were torn in a few places and didn't even go down half her thigh. Her boots were halfway up her legs, stopping at the knee. And her pink hair was admired by Shank, especially since they were done up in cute little buns.

It did suit the stranger well, the entire get-up. Shank couldn't help herself. She was needlessly staring, especially at the girl's face. But who couldn't with how beautiful it was?

 _Wait_ , _what_?

Shank's mouth finally closed, and she tried to relax so that the heat that had resided against her cheeks would disappear. The girl took a few steps toward her, only being just slightly shorter than Shank from where she stood a few feet away.

"I was just kidding at the start, but you do actually look lost. You okay?" her hands were slung in her pockets as she tilted her head slightly, clearly waiting for a response. The brunette woman's eyes darted away and found themselves looking to her left.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Shank cleared her throat after finally speaking her first words, and she ran one hand nervously through her hair. Her eyes popped forward again a moment later and she froze when she noticed the other woman was slinking up beside her, examining her very closely. Shank's eyes widened slightly as she pretended to be distracted by something else, and her gaze landed on the palm trees that were just able to be seen in the distance.

"So, are you Shank? I expected you to be a little. . . I don't know. . . _cooler_?"

Immediately at hearing this, Shank bristled and took a step back. The mysterious lady froze in her place, her lips slightly pursed as though she knew she'd successfully gotten under Shank's skin. Her dainty nose stuck up in satisfaction, the sun reflecting off of her freckled cheeks. There was a mischievous look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry that I'm still taking it all in. It's a little overwhelming, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but it's not that surprising since I've felt like I've lived here my entire life." The woman rolled her shoulders. "I've been here a bit longer than you, though, so I guess I've just gotten used to it."

"It feels like that for me too, but. . ." Shank looked down at her hands, before slowly looking up. "Wait. . . longer?"

"Well, you were just put in during this update. See, this game is in what the fancy programmers call 'closed alpha' right now. Not entirely open to the public. So, as soon as our game's all put together, we'll be online for the whole world to see! Anyways, once I knew the update was over, I came right over to see what you were up to, and well. . . you weren't up to much."

Shank's eyes didn't leave her as the girl walked circles around her. She was very animated in her movements, doing lots of talking with her hands.

"Considering you're supposed to be a huge component of this game, I can't help but wonder why you were added after me." The bubblegum-haired girl paused, and cupped one hand with her chin while her thumb pressed against the side of her face.

"I. . . well, still don't know your name." Shank pointed out awkwardly.

"Are you saying you don't know me?" there was an offended gasp, and the stranger laid one hand against her chest.

"I'm afraid not." Shank shrugged.

"Well, we can't have your memory stay hazy forever," she smiled, "throw a few people out there that you know, at least."

"Uh. . ." Shank trailed off, not recalling any names in particular in her mind.

"Alright, I'll be nice," the girl conceded with a smile, putting her hands up, "truth is, you probably don't know any besides one at most. Maybe in the future there'll be more characters in this game. In the meantime, though—you and I, Shank? This is _our_ world."

"Really?"

Shank couldn't help but feel like a child when the woman in front of her looked like she had _all_ the answers, despite them being the same age. It was true that the brunette had plenty of knowledge, but this girl was making her head spin.

"Mhm! Isn't it wonderful?" Shank's company asked her.

"Yeah, but what about all of the people driving those cars?" the brunette asked skeptically.

The stranger slung one arm on Shank's shoulder roughly and gestured out to the cars, "Look at all of that empty-brained AI out there. Charming, right?"

That's when Shank squinted, while the other girl watched her facial features carefully. Now Shank was _more_ than confused, more than uncomfortable.

"You're saying that they're like computers?" she asked uneasily. Her dark eyes watched the faces passing by in the cars. They seemed full of life at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that these 'people' were hollow. Their eyes did not hold as much life as the bubblegum-haired stranger's. They did blink and move around, but no emotion was there.

"That's right."

"But how do you know that for sure?" Shank turned to look at her. All of her awkwardness had melted away, replaced by concern instead. That was a good thing—the girl was practically leaning on her shoulder at this point.

"I don't like to brag, but I'm a bit on the techy side, so I know a bit about computers and machinery. It's just how they were coded. Think about it, if the creators of our game gave _every_ character as much intelligence as they gave us, this game would be up in ten. . . _million_ years, maybe. So for now, they're just mindless people driving cars on the road."

Shank only raised a brow at this, moving away.

"Okay. . . so, you're. . . 'techy?' What's that mean?"

"Would you like a list of my talents? Well, Shank, I could pull apart my entire car and re-piece it together if I so please," she began to explain, pacing back and forth in front of the brunette, "I can reprogram security cameras so that I can look into them without even leaving my computer, I can even hassle you by creating gadgets and gizmos to annoy you on the road."

Shank was listening intently until the 'hassling' part, "What? Why would you do that to me?"

The stranger spun on her heel and faced Shank.

"I'm your rival, it's my job. The name's Shiv." The girl grinned.

Oh, _now_ it was starting to make sense. Shank had previously wore a look of confusion, but her jaw began to clench as slowly, unwanted information poured into her brain like poison tainting water. And she couldn't help but feel slightly threatened all of a sudden, when previously she had been feeling so comfortable. She twisted one of her arms discreetly to feel if her shank was actually up her sleeve, where it should've been—and yes, it was, and she was suddenly a bit more confident in her stance as she shifted on her feet.

"That's right," Shank said, a note of disappointment in her voice despite her hardening expression. "We're rivals."

Shiv apparently took notice of that right away, and she arched a brow.

"What's with that?"

Seeing that Shiv didn't seem intimidated in the least made Shank uncomfortable, so she tried to play it cool.

"Well. . ." Shank trailed off uneasily. "Shouldn't that mean that we. . . don't really care for each other?"

"Sure. That's what our code says, _right_?" Shiv asked, glancing up at her counterpart with a grin. "You know what I say? I say _screw_ the code. We do what we want. Now come on, I'll drive you to your place so that you can get to your car. Oh, this is gonna be so much fun, Shank."

Shank stared in surprise as Shiv headed right off for her vehicle, jumping over the door, shimmying her way into the seat. As Shank approached the side at a hesitated pace, she took in the car. It was a lime green color with a flare of purple by the wheels and splashes among other various places. The decal on the side was clearly a print of a skull on the side, some purple flames coming off of it.

Shank only smirked at it. But finally her eyes rested again on the girl in the vehicle, who was tapping the door impatiently with chipped, pink fingernails.

"So, are you getting in, or am I blasting off without you?"

Shank's eyes widened slightly as she thought about what she should do. She wasn't quite sure what _really_ was in her code, but when she looked at Shiv, there wasn't a trace of malice in her heart despite their so-called rivalry. It seemed that she was going to have to do her own digging within herself, to find out just who she really was. Though Shank _hoped_ to be someone who was a valiant leader, someone who cared about everyone and always gave a helping hand to those in need.

Even if they were seeking to do wrong to her.

"Tick-tock, Shank—I'm _bored_ and you're wasting my time."

But was Shiv someone she could _really_ seriously trust? While she _was_ programmed with no trust issues, she still was cautious about making the right choice. Shiv, though, had not shown her that she couldn't be trusted. So, Shank conceded and made her decision.

A moment later she sank into a smile.

"Alright, you've successfully convinced me. Forget the code. Let's go for a drive."

She swiftly slid across the hood of the car as she made her way to the passengers seat, secretly hoping she had made a good impression, despite her embarrassment.

"No, I specifically said 'screw the code.' It's okay, Shank, this game isn't exactly for toddlers. You can say one or two 'not-nice words.' It won't kill you." Shiv grinned at her.

Shank pulled her seat belt on as she glanced at her new accomplice. Shiv had already pulled out a pair of reflective shades, putting them over her eyes as she revved up the engine.

"Yeah, whatever you say. By the way. . . _I'm_ the cool one."

"You sure about that?"

" _Absolutely_."

"Oh, by the way—I forgot to mention one thing," Shiv said, glancing at her. Shank looked at her, still smiling just the same, raising a brow at this. "To balance out my smarts, I'm a pretty horrible driver."

The smile dropped off of Shank's face as Shiv hit the gas and the car rumbled to life. Shiv would get an earful once the ride was over.

Though while both of them were hollering and the wind blew in their faces as Shiv barely avoided cars on the road, and Shank was a bit scared for her life in the moment, she couldn't help but feel glad. She felt so alive. And that's when she realized that, while their game seemed so barren and lonely, it wasn't at all. Not when Shiv was there.

* * *

"No! No, no, no! I am _so_ close, and I am _not_ letting this update ruin me! One last thing, we're almost there!"

There was a teenage voice.

"C'mon, Lee, you've been playing this quest for hours. If you didn't get it before, you're not gonna get it now."

Another responded.

There was a group of four teens huddled around one computer screen.

"Shut up, Shaun!" Lee hissed back at his friend, and the others flinched. "I am _not_ giving up on this. Did you see that million gold reward? I have to get it."

"Okay, then do it already." The only girl's eyes narrowed. "We've been waiting to go to the movies for how long now?"

"You're no help, Julie." Lee cast his glare at her. She only stuck out her tongue in response. "Now all of you shut it so that I can focus!"

The avatar being played, StillNotBit2, was determined to finish Shiv's new time-limited quest line, scouring around for one last thing he needed. Everyone in the group, aside from Lee, knew better than to be stupid enough and actually _dare_ pick her quest line during the special event currently going on—the 'Shank and Shiv Showdown' as it was called. They had all picked Shank's quest line instead, and had already finished it.

They had gotten a rare car, and that was good enough for them, since it was an exclusive. Money sounded better, but Shiv's quest line did not, especially when it was time-limited.

It was definitely ten times more convoluted than Shank's quests. Running around doing errands for Shiv sounded really, _really_ unpleasant to the group of friends, especially since it was so time-consuming. Not for Lee, apparently, but he was certainly regretting it by now.

"Why did you even pick this psycho's task? I would've restarted my account if I were you."

One of the boys remarked.

"Have you seen what Shiv looks like, Jake?" Lee retorted. "She's a total _babe_."

"So is Shank." Jake snickered.

"She's also far nicer, and not a know-it-all." Julie pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

"You guys do realize they're fictional, right?" Shaun asked, eyelids drooping.

"Quiet!" Lee said, his eyes wide.

He had done it. He had found the ultimate specimen that was required.

After hours of running around doing mindless tasks for the girl, finally. He felt pride wash over him. He had gone through so much, and at last her final request could be fulfilled—!

Jake and Shaun burst into laughter as Lee frowned and headed back to where he knew he would finally finish his task.

" _A refrigerator door handle_ is what you've been looking for? For what?" Julie asked, and she held a hand over her mouth as she tried to hide a laugh.

"I don't know! Something she needs for a machine. This quest line's stupid, okay?" Lee sighed in exasperation. "But now, it's all gonna be over."

"Yeah, gonna be over _real_ soon if you don't hurry. The game's going down for an update in sixty seconds." Shaun pointed out to him.

Meanwhile, Shiv was oblivious to it all. She and Shank were opposite sides of each other, standing in the middle of a junk yard. Both of them were going to be happy when these dumb quests were over. A full day was far too long, of standing and doing nothing except being bored. Shiv already had a chip on her shoulder from the amount of attention Shank's quests were getting versus hers. Where there was one for Shiv, there was a hundred more for Shank.

Shank was surrounded by loving and doting followers who were still finishing her quest. Shiv had seen one person an hour ago.

Her arms were crossed as she noticed two more running toward Shank. The only _positive_ about not getting all the attention was not having to listen to everyone yelling on their mics at the same time, and for that, Shiv's ears were grateful. Other than that, she was _insanely_ perturbed.

"Hey!"

At first, she didn't even notice the voice that was talking to her, because her eyes were narrowed at Shank's crowd. Then she saw the character leaping up and down in front of her in a bugged-out manner, and she was fairly surprised. Her eyes sparkled a little as she looked down.

"You retrieved the part I asked for?" Shiv asked with a grin.

"I did!" there was a cry of success coming from the mic.

Thirty seconds.

Shiv was given the part, and she looked down at it, but in dismay she realized that it was the wrong one. Her free hand rose to start massaging one of her temples, and she sighed through her nose, knowing what was coming.

"Where's the million?" he asked. His character was grinning stupidly with its buggy mouth as he excitedly darted side to side in front of her, and Shiv might've laughed if she wasn't aggravated.

"It's. . . not the right part." She said, and handed it back to StillNotBit2.

"What! What kind of handle are you looking for, lady?"

"Dude, I told you, _she sucks_."

"Shank is so much better than her."

"Yeah dude, sorry you didn't get it. Just pick Shank's quest next time this comes around."

"Whatever. I don't even want to play this stupid game anymore."

Shiv was used to jabs and snarky comments, but for some reason, that last one really bugged her. Her brows knit together as her nails dug into her palms.

"Stupid kid," was all she said, though she really wanted to say more that exceeded her game's rating.

Then, finally, there was silence as the game shut down for its update.

All the avatars slowly began to disappear, disconnecting until they had all gone away, and peace reigned over the game at last.

Shank immediately let out a sigh of relief, and she stretched out her back. She only smiled, and if anything, felt more energetic now that the game was offline, rather than tired after the event.

"That's a wrap!" she called across the way. She bounded over to Shiv, her face glowing with a bright smile full of white teeth. "You know, I love the kids and all, but that much standing in one position does a number on the back."

Shank stopped beside Shiv and had begun to stretch herself out again, when she noticed there was a silence. She stood upright and looked at Shiv, who didn't seem to be the happiest.

"Hey, you okay?" Shank asked her, to which she already suspected the answer would be a resounding no. But a moment later, the furrowed brows, pursed lips, and tension seemed to melt off of Shiv, and she looked up to meet Shank's face.

A smile was quickly there instead, the edges of her mouth turned upright.

"Better than ever. Say, what are we going to do during this update?"

Shank blinked at the sudden change in mood, but her smile returned quickly, "I'm not sure. We could take the crew and hang out at Spotify and listen to some music?"

"We can listen to music from our phones." Shiv pointed out.

"It's cooler when the whole room has surround sound."

"Maybe," Shiv shrugged, but then she got a little closer to Shank's face, "or we could just hang out, you and I, like the good old days?"

"The good old days," Shank's mind took her somewhere else just as she thought about them, "you know, I really do miss when it was just us."

"Me too." One of Shiv's hands moved to Shank's shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. "So what do you say?" Shiv asked, smirking.

"Well, I say that it's a great. . . idea. . ." Shank trailed off when a melodic set of horns began to fire off, and she turned her head.

Shiv only scoffed in irritation as the familiar cars of Shank's squad burst through one of the hills of piled-high not-salvageable car parts, spraying them everywhere.

"Yo, Shank and Shiv! How was it?" Little Debbie asked, poking her head out of her car's window, smiling brightly.

"It was fun! Right?" Shank nudged Shiv.

"Oh, it was a _blast!_ " Shiv enunciated the word loaded with sarcasm.

"Cool!" was the response, and Shiv's eyelids fell slightly as Little Debbie got out of her car, followed by Pyro, Felony and Butcher Boy doing the same.

"Are you two too tired, or can we go do something fun?" Pyro asked.

"No, but define 'fun' for us—does that have to do with watching you light things on fire?" Shank asked in a playful tone, raising an eyebrow.

"Ha ha, very funny," Pyro rolled his eyes, "but it has to do with something outside of our game."

"I'm listening." Shank said, her interest seeming to be piqued.

"Well, there's a new website up. It's only a few days old, we heard about some players talking about it. It's called BuzzzTube. Apparently it's the 'new thing.'" Butcher Boy said.

Shank cocked her head, while Shiv's expression revealed that she was intrigued.

"That sounds far too similar to YouTube." Shank said, placing a hand on her hip in disdain.

"Well, we're gonna go check it out. Wanna come?" Little Debbie asked, grinning.

"I don't know, I—" Shank turned to where Shiv should've been, but she'd run off ahead.

"Come on Shank! Let's go check this new site out! It could be fun." she smirked.

 _So much for hanging out alone_. Shank only blinked, and then sighed, following along.

She couldn't help but feel a bit surprised at Shiv's excitement. She never got. . . well, so enthusiastic over new websites popping up. For all they knew, this website could totally be a bust, and they'd be wasting precious down time on it. Shank usually was never opposed to these type of opportunities, but for some reason, she had a strange feeling about it.

Eventually everyone got into the same car. It didn't take them very long to reach their destination—it turns out BuzzzTube was far closer than any of them thought. Shank rested her head on her arm as she leaned against the car window, observing the twinkling, cerulean-blue chunks of Internet that surrounded them. That, though, was cut fairly short when they finally were sitting outside the looming headquarters of the website.

Shank stepped out of the car, taking in the building. It wasn't any more intimidating than Slaughter Race's entrance, but still left a weird taste in her mouth. _BuzzzTube_. She couldn't decide whether or not the amount of z's was unique or annoying.

"Shank?" the one being called turned her head to see Shiv at her side, and she looked down to see her pink-polished fingertips entwining with her own. "Ready to see what it's all about?"

Shank could only smile when she looked at Shiv's expression of curiosity and excitement.

"Sure, I just thought we were going to, you know, hang out alone." She said.

"We can do that later. I just thought this site would be cool to check out." Shiv replied.

"Alright, later it is," Shank responded, and gave her girlfriend a peck on the cheek.

When they ascended into BuzzzTube, the first thought that Shank had was— _wow, this place is_ _overwhelming_. Various videos, whether it be of different animals, humans, or literally _anything_ else, were blowing up with hundreds of thousands of hearts. It seemed like BuzzzTube was on fire. Shank could hardly believe her eyes at the amount of hearts videos had collected on the site in such little time.

"How long did you say this site was up?" Shank asked, her eyes searching every screen in sight, shock filling her at the millions of accumulated views.

"Well, this is our fifth day online now."

A new voice greeted Shank's senses, and she turned to see a lady with blue skin, clad in a simplistic, blue dress that hit her ankles was standing in front of her. Her hair was in a frill of curls that gathered around her shoulders. She was smiling wide, a friendly look on her face as she moved an outstretched hand toward Shank, the other placed firmly on her hip.

"My name is Yesss, that's three s's! I'm the head algorithm here at BuzzzTube. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Shank made no hesitation in shaking her hand, and Yesss moved along to do the same with the rest of her friends. Once all the introductions were finished, Yesss was looking more than pleased.

"So, you're out on the floor meeting people? With your job, you sound really busy." Shank said in surprise.

"When you do your job right, you don't have to worry about being busy." Yesss winked at her. "We've had lots of visitors, so I figured—why not, you know? The opening of such a grand website happens once in a lifetime, after all."

Shank wasn't so sure if she appreciated Yesss's attitude. She only crossed her arms, unable to think up a response that wouldn't sound as equally condescending.

"You've already got BuzzzTube stars? Didn't it take YouTube much longer to figure that whole thing out?" Butcher Boy asked.

Yesss twirled as she moved over to him, "Of course! We are, after all, competitors of that site. But here at BuzzzTube, we actually _care_ about our uploaders. We want to see them succeed."

"Are you saying that you can make any person famous? Just like that?"

Shank's head whipped toward Shiv, who had just snapped her fingers. That look in her eyes, like she was going goo-goo for the site, certainly made Shank uneasy.

"You bet, sweetie. If fame's what your looking for, it's my game to get it for you." Yesss snapped her own fingers, pointing at her. "I've got the secret to getting you tons of hearts and popularity. You've got the _perfect_ face for this kind of thing."

"Thanks, but we aren't interested." Shank said, "We were just coming by to visit. We should really be going now."

There seemed to be a flicker in Yesss's eye; it was something that made Shank suspicious. Was it irritation? She certainly didn't let it show in her face, aside from her pout.

"Aw, it's sad you're leaving so soon. I understand, but just know you're welcome back _any_ time. I've got plenty of time on my hands."

Shank only gave her a courteous smile, and immediately turned, spinning Shiv around with her. She only wanted to get _out_ of there, and being there one minute longer, especially dealing with Yesss's attitude, was going to make her skin crawl.

"Whoa, hold on a sec!" Shiv said, pushing away from Shank. "I wasn't done talking with our new friend."

Shank opened her mouth to immediately protest, but she only shut it as Shiv turned back to Yesss.

The real reason she had wanted to leave was because of that _look_ in Shiv's eyes. Throughout their relationship, they'd told each other plenty of things—their wants in life being one of them. Shiv loved the thought of popularity, being noticed by a crowd. And what Yesss was describing? Well, that just seemed like Shiv's personal utopia.

"Feel free to browse our videos if you'd like. I'm going to have a personal chat with Shiv here." The algorithm smiled at the group, leaving a lingering look on Shank, before she put her arm around Shiv's shoulders and began to guide her away.

Shank felt a bit defeated at this sudden turn of events. It wasn't that she wanted to keep Shiv from the idea of being a 'BuzzzTube star.' Rather, their game warranted full attention from them most of the time, and the two things could not mix. It was one or the other, not both.

She could only hope the girl would come to her senses before it was too late.

But it was only a few months later that Shank realized the Shiv she knew had gone.

* * *

"Hello? Anyone awake?"

A familiar—but, at this hour, it was not very welcomed—voice reverberated within the household. The living room was assumed to be empty.

Shiv only blinked at the lack of response. Though it was possible for Shank to actually go to sleep early, it was unlikely for her, but in a way she was thankful she was asleep. So Shiv threw down her bag full of things onto the recliner without giving a second glance as she made her way over to the kitchen. She was humming softly, pleasantly in fact, as she rummaged around inside of the cabinets.

While looking for a bowl, she suddenly had the feeling she was being watched; in turn, this caused her to whip her head around, still mid-reach for the bowl she'd spotted a moment before.

Shank was standing there a few feet away, her arms crossed. Her eyes were narrowed, and to say she looked angry was an understatement. If Shiv actually cared, she might've been a little intimidated by her stance.

"Where have you been?" Shank demanded. Her tone was heated as Shiv turned toward her, leaning back against the counter.

"I've been at BuzzzTube, _chillax_ —"

"For a _month_." Shank pointed out, interrupting her.

Shiv's eyes blinked; an expressionless, emotionless look was on her face. That only made Shank more infuriated.

"Look, Shank, I think it's about time _I_ get some 'me time' and Yesss actually agrees."

"She agrees because she's using you for money. You're a cash cow to her!" Shank snapped.

Well, if Shiv wasn't sure of Shank's anger before, she certainly was now. Her brows furrowed as she stared at the brunette.

"Yesss actually treats me with respect. She _loves_ my tutorial videos. I actually get to show the world my true talent instead of being the measly side character that no one pays any attention to."

"'Measly side character?' You're forefront like me."

"Doesn't feel that way." Shiv retorted in a snippity tone.

"You _are_. What, is being popular all that matters to you? What happened to the Shiv I know who would just spend time with _me_ and that was enough? The one who would race around with me and explore _our world_ together at all hours of the night? Do you have any idea how things have been here without you? Players are _noticing_ and it's not good."

Shank's eyes reflected a fire in them. She wasn't letting Shiv get off so easily, even if she had been following her BuzzzTube videos. That was the only time Shank had seen her the past month.

"Please," Shiv scoffed, disregarding everything that Shank had just said, "if you wanted me to come around more often, maybe when you see me you should actually be nice to me."

"Where is this coming from?" Shank asked bewilderedly. "You've abandoned our game, and you refuse to admit that fact. You left everything behind—and for what? A little digital heart that means nothing?"

"I get _millions_ of hearts. People love me." Shiv snapped at her as she walked up to Shank. "I'm getting what I've always deserved. You're too blind to see that this is the recognition I should have gotten from the start."

Shank's anger had been starting to double, especially after the angered tone that Shiv had also taken on. But her eyes softened slightly instead, the pain clear in them.

"I know that you deserve recognition, Shiv. But you have responsibility _here_. Do you realize what you're doing? You're abandoning your game for something temporary—"

"Shut _up_! I swear to Mod, what are you, my mother or something? You're so. . . _insufferable_ sometimes! I'm allowed to do whatever I want, and you can't stop me."

Shank instantly paused, shock running down her spine.

Every relationship had their fights—even the best of friends—but what Shank was seeing now was unheard of in theirs. They'd squabbled a few times over petty things, but then again, every couple tended to. But never had she heard Shiv so careless, so uncaring, so apathetic toward her. It stung her, and in the worst way possible.

"It's not my fault you're acting like a child," Shank would regret her retort later, "instead of an adult. You're acting more selfish and entitled than some of the kids we come across in this game."

"You know what Shank—I wanted to keep you around," Shiv went on heatedly, "but I see this just _isn't_ going to work out."

"Are you out of your mind?" Shank scoffed. "You're the one who has neglected this relationship, if I remember. You put me to the side for BuzzzTube."

"It's my _job_ now." Shiv snapped. "What's it gonna be—will you support me and my career over at BuzzzTube, or are you gonna keep reprimanding me like you own me?"

The tense argument fell into silence. Shank's arms fell to her sides as she stared into Shiv's piercing eyes. She was searching them, determined to find some sort of lick of care. But instead, all she saw was rage and defiance. Shank swallowed roughly.

"You know that I will always support you in whatever you do. But I cannot support you abandoning this game, abandoning your responsibility to us. All to be in the spotlight, when you have real love waiting right here for you. You don't need empty hearts over at BuzzzTube—you've got genuine hearts over here!"

Shiv's expression grew more and more blank as Shank continued on. The girl slowly started to shake her head, and to the brunette's surprise, she even started to laugh.

"I see." Without another word, she shoved past Shank and grabbed her bag a bit violently. She cast a glare at Shank, "If you can't support me, then I don't need you."

Shank's hands felt numb. She felt her throat closing, all while she was watching Shiv head for the front door. She knew she had to say something.

"BuzzzTube has changed you." Shank forced out, frowning as she blocked the door, just before Shiv could leave. Shiv only raised a brow at this action.

"You're right. BuzzzTube _did_ change me. It's giving me more love than _you_ ever gave me and showing me what it's like to actually have friends."

"I know that's not you saying that. I _know_ it's not you." Shank said, growing desperate now. "It can't be. The Shiv I know—"

"The Shiv you know is _dead_." The bubblegum-haired girl spat. "Gah! It's just. . . Mod, you don't understand, do you? For once in my life I'm happy, _truly_ happy, and all you can do is try to take that from me just like you took _all the spotlight_ the second you were programmed into this game!"

Shank only stared with wide eyes as Shiv tugged the door open and the brunette was forced to move aside. She was feeling more than hurt—she was feeling betrayed, feeling dejected.

"When did me loving you stop being enough?" Shank asked in a hush, trying to ignore the pain she was feeling.

"The second you started getting all the love from the players. The moment I realized that no one would ever look at me the same way they look at you, which is what I want the most. You have no idea what it feels like to feel so hated in your own game." Shank stared at her, heart breaking in her chest. "Guess what, Shank? Maybe if you'd never been programmed into this game. . . well, I might be the one with all the fame, and all the happiness that you have. I _wish_ you _never_ had been programmed into this game."

Shiv seemed to regret her words when she spoke them, and Shank's eyes widened all the more. Both the girls stood in utter silence. Shank's eyes were searching the ground, a look of undeniable stun clear on her face. Shiv hadn't cared previously, but seeing that look on Shank's face made her feel guilty.

"Shank. . . I didn't mean—"

"Save it," Shank interrupted, "you've made it very clear how you feel about me. I understand."

Shiv straightened. "Well. . . then, that's it. You know how I feel. So. . . it's over between us. Got it?"

"Yeah. I've got it," Shank replied, a bitterness in her voice. "But let it be clear that if you walk out that door right now, you won't be welcome here any longer. . . and I won't forgive you. If you think this dream is so worth chasing that you'd be willing to throw away your friends. . . and even a _girlfriend_. . . then go and chase it, see how I care."

There was a moment of silence.

"I will." Shiv finally replied, casting a look over her shoulder.

The moonlight cast an ominous shadow over the girl's face as she stared down Shank. She was being dead serious. Shank had never seen her act this way, not in their years of being together. Not once, not ever. And she never thought she was capable of saying such hurtful things.

"BuzzzTube really _did_ change you." Shank said in a whisper.

The pain was clear in her eyes, shown through how glassy they looked. The tension in her stature gave it away, too. Shiv did not give any hints to her noticing or caring about this fact.

The BuzzzTube star only cracked a smile.

"I'm sorry. But you'll get used to it."

With that, she turned around, disappearing into the night.

Shank wordlessly watched as she went, not believing any of that had just happened. She was in denial, but if it was over between them, she wouldn't pursue her, and she would lose her feelings. She would never see her again.

That's what she'd believed at first.

There were times where Shank would be in complete denial that they'd parted ways forever. There were other times when she would stay up all night, unable to sleep as she reminisced upon the times where things were good, when BuzzzTube didn't exist. And sometimes when she couldn't sleep, she would watch Shiv's videos, where she was looking sprightly and smug in her new occupation. Shank became depressed by how happy she appeared to be.

Eventually, with the disappearance of Shiv from her game, the creators seemed to be baffled by it. They didn't know what to think about it, because their coding had never gone so haywire before. There was high debate about what should happen—should they make a new code, since the old code appeared to no longer work? No, would it even be worth it to make a new code, or try to fix the one that still already existed?

Considering Shiv's lack of popularity amongst the general population of Slaughter Race, they decided that maybe it was a sign she had inadvertently disappeared.

Thus, Shank's worst fears came true—Shiv was being phased out of the game entirely. Most players didn't bat an eye at this, aside from the small group of fans Shiv had actually accumulated. Forums seemed to blow up in argument over this fact. Some encouraged the game developers to entirely get rid of any trace of her, while others begged that she be brought back, that she was an 'OG' component to the game. Despite these efforts, nothing could change the mind of the developers.

After Shiv's code was deleted from the game, as well as any remains of her impact, Shank knew it was truly over. It was like she never even existed within their game. Since Shiv was still posting things on BuzzzTube and gaining millions of views as well as hearts, it became clear that she had no care in the world about being erased from the world of Slaughter Race.

There was little time for Shank to be angry, though.

A year had passed since Shiv's rise to fame on the website Shank absolutely loathed. It was around that time a serious threat had popped out of seemingly nowhere.

Most of the time, it was unlikely for a virus outbreak to become a life-threatening issue. Internet users and characters alike knew of the damage a virus was capable of. Though most were unconcerned whenever a new virus found its way into the mainframe. Most only intended to target Netizen computers to try and slow them down, but once in a blue moon would a nastier virus come around.

This was one of those blue moons, and Shank would always remember the day vividly.

A warning had been issued that reached out to every part of the Internet, warning Netizens and game characters alike to head to the Anti-Virus District because a devastating virus was wrecking havoc on the net. Something like that had never happened before, and it was a bit of an intimidating threat to say the least. All the information they had been given had been very simple, and they really didn't have that much knowledge on what they were dealing with.

The warning was not taken lightly after it was pointed out that two websites had been entirely corrupted by this virus, possibly beyond repair or any salvaging whatsoever. Though they were minor sites with little defenses toward a threat such as this, it still caused a sweep of terror in the community, and no one was taking chances.

That included Shank.

"Alright, we're going to make a straight beeline for the Anti-Virus District." Shank was saying as her squad of friends rallied around her.

The looks on their faces were grim. The truth about the matter was that it wasn't very common for viruses to infect online games. Normally, there was the threat of hackers on occasion—and that sort of situation could be handled accordingly. While hackers could manipulate and edit coding, they couldn't corrupt it, and there wasn't anything that couldn't be repaired from their damage. Shank in her days had seen plenty of websites and games alike go down due to hackers, but they always came back up.

To think that their game could go down and never come back up was enough to push them to leave. It was a risky move considering how the game developers had deleted any trace of Shiv—her code, her quest lines, and most of the references to her—from their game, and though no one spoke it aloud, each character secretly felt nervous that it could happen to them next.

But, in their favor, the game went offline to players as a cautionary approach to keeping people's save files from becoming corrupted in the case that something _did_ happen.

Shank, though, was not convinced that could keep _them_ safe.

"Maybe we should just stay here," Little Debbie suggested uneasily, "after all. . . what if something happens along the way? The Anti-Virus District has never been totally reliable."

"And what if something happens to us while we're asleep, or when we're not expecting it? Our game could go down and we wouldn't even know it. We don't know what would happen if we go offline _permanently_. . . and I'm not willing to find out." Shank replied.

"But what if it doesn't?" Pyro asked as Shank started to head over to her car. She looked at him over her shoulder.

She knew her friends were just as freaked out as she was. When they'd actually heard about the warning, none of them could believe it. People were purposely even staying off their computers—much to their own dismay, of course—in order to keep from contracting the virus or corrupting files on their computer, since that seemed to be this virus's forte. But Shank was their leader, and she had to keep a brave face in times of trouble even if _she_ was scared.

"I don't want to take that chance. If that thing is corrupting files, we could get corrupted, too." Shank said, "The possibilities are endless. You guys know that viruses can cause damage to a video game character's code. We're better to be safe than sorry."

The Shank squad all shared a look with each other. There was a moment of silence shared between all of them as fear, doubt, and hesitation swam across their expressions. That's when Felony sighed, and started to nod.

"Shank's right. We go there, we're guaranteed to be a little safer than where we are now."

Pyro, Little Debbie and Butcher Boy all shared a glance at what she said. But, that's when they finally conceded.

"Let's take my car." Butcher Boy offered, and the others nodded in agreement.

"I'll drive my own." Shank said, knowing there wasn't enough room to fit all of them.

It didn't take very long for them to be out on the road. Butcher Boy was closely following behind Shank, and the second they left their game's entrance, anyone could tell the Internet was more quiet that day.

Websites seemed to take the same cautionary approach that Slaughter Race's developers had—they were, instead of being lit up, dimmed down. The Netizens were also scarce, which made driving easier, but it still was alarming to Shank. She had one elbow propped up on the edge of the door, holding up her head with her hand as they rode at a steady 15 MPH pace in order to not run anyone over. The Anti-Virus District wasn't _very_ far off, but it was far away enough to make Shank antsy.

She instead tried to focus on the cerulean-blue sky that surrounded them, hoping that her eyes wouldn't betray her and she'd look over at the website she hated the most. They would have to pass by it in order to get to their destination, and Shank wanted _nothing_ to do with that site. . .

She kept her eyes straight ahead as they passed by, and her mind dared to wander. Had they, too, evacuated to the Anti-Virus District yet? For a moment, she thought that they probably didn't care. Shank had actually received a notification on her phone that Shiv had posted a new videos a few hours after the announcement was made, and it then became clear there was probably a major lack of worry about any possible threats. That only made Shank aggravated.

After thinking about this, she would've never expected that, despite them passing by BuzzzTube already, that she could hear a scream from the building. It just barely reached her ears, but it was almost like a cry for help—and Shank immediately felt her stomach turn.

She hit the breaks a bit too hard and her head turned, eyes wide with alarm.

Butcher Boy hit the horn as he too slammed on his breaks, and Pyro leaned out the window, "What the heck're you doing, Shank, you nearly made us crash!"

"Get to the Anti-Virus District!" Shank ordered, and she already was reaching for the gear shift.

"What? Where are you going?" Butcher Boy asked.

"That's not important, what's important is that you guys are safe. I just need to check something out!" she answered, and with that, she turned and hit the accelerator with as much pressure as she could and went skidding off toward BuzzzTube.

It was true she _hated_ the website, and she particularly didn't like Yesss—especially since she was Shiv's best friend now, but something felt off. Of course, BuzzzTube hadn't decided to go offline, which made themselves a pretty huge target to this virus. Even if websites went offline, they still were at risk, but still—what would a virus rather attack, a shiny, glowing building, or a darkened one that didn't appear as important?

BuzzzTube's safety was not something she cared about. But Shiv's safety, definitely, since she lived there now.

Shank slammed on the breaks and could hear another scream just as she did so. The worst feeling had built up inside of her as she jumped out of the car without bothering to pull out the keys, running up the stairs as fast as her feet could take her. She slammed the doors open and she looked around. Her eyes wandered and she felt shock rush up and down her spine.

Shank had only visited this website once, and she wasn't so sure how to navigate around. But a few of the screens that usually were playing various 'gone viral' videos were now out of commission. They were blank, black screens—and one was even broken and had some sparks spewing off of it. Netizens were still inside but now flooding out, panicked looks on their faces as they silently rushed out.

It was quite possible that Shank's worst fear was about to be confirmed—that the virus had reached BuzzzTube.

And as she heard another shout from somewhere in the building, she felt even more uneasy.

Taking little time to prepare herself for what she could possibly walk in on, she pulled her shank out and ran in the direction of the panicked voices, which were getting closer and closer. She felt her nerves getting the better of her as she turned and ran down a hall. There's two doors at the end of the hall and Shank can't help but notice that one of them was just cracked open slightly, and noise was coming from inside the room.

She slowed down a bit when hesitation hit her, but then she frowned and gathered up the courage to burst in there without regret. Her speed increased once more as she burst through the doors, and her breathing was a tad labored as she surveyed the situation.

Her dark eyes immediately landed on Yesss, who was standing on top of her desk and in the middle of shouting, "This is a horrible idea!"

"It's going to work, just trust me!" Shank's heart nearly skipped a beat when she heard Shiv, and she saw that she looked no different than when she had decided to abandon Slaughter Race. But despite looking no different, it was clear she was a changed person, ever since she'd first walked through BuzzzTube's doors.

Shiv and Yesss both turned their heads when they sensed Shank's presence, and the Slaughter Race leader straightened in confusion.

"What are _you_ doing here?" was Shiv's immediate question. "You're barging in while we're in the middle of filming one of my videos."

It was already awkward enough talking to Shiv after the last time they'd talked, but to say something like _that_? Shank looked at her as if she had two heads, then glanced at Yesss. The algorithm was holding a phone in her hands, but she didn't look like she wanted to be recording.

" _A video_? There's a virus on the loose in this website, you need to get to the Anti-Virus District." Shank pointed out, "I heard you scream."

"Well, we didn't have it under control before, but I do now," Shiv responded, and Shank's eyes redirected themselves to her hand where a metal contraption was overlaying.

It was a long piece of metal that ran along the girl's forearm and over her shoulder. There was an extendable wrist on it, as Shiv demonstrated. It could go pretty far out, nearly reaching the ceiling of the room which was fairly tall, and the hand was matched in time with Shiv's finger movements. She moved her pointer, and the hand's pointer moved, too.

The hand flexed open and closed, showing that clearly it was meant to secure things within its grasp.

"Meet the Handy Dandy 9000. I'm going to take this bad boy down."

"That's not. . ." Shank trailed off instead of finishing her statement. "That's not a good idea."

"We've got it all under control. You're just going to get in the way."

At Shiv's words, a frown settled on the brunette's face.

"I came here to _help_ you—"

"Get down!" Yesss shouted, interrupting Shank.

She easily complied as she crouched down, and just in the nick of time as something wispy seemed to fly over her head, just brushing against the top of her hair. Her heart had easily skipped a beat as she realized Yesss had just saved her hide, and as she looked back up from her still crouched position her pupils quickly became smaller.

What had just passed over her head was a virus—no, _the_ virus, and her eyes widened upon that realization. Yesss's face contorted with a very clear fear, and now both her and Shank were watching as the virus flew overhead, looking for a victim.

It had two yellow, glowing eyes, and its body was a foot foot long in length. Its body was orange, and a red steam rose off of its body as though it was hot to the touch. Though the most defining feature of this virus had to be its elongated tail, almost about the length of its body. It was all white as well, aside from the tip which was as sharp as a dagger. Almost like a scorpion's tail.

"That's not something you should even be _attempting_ to mess with!" Shank pointed out as she snapped at Shiv.

"Exactly! Listen to her!" Shank's eyes landed on Yesss, and for once, she was thankful the algorithm was talking.

But Shiv had tuned both of them out. Her eyes reflected a clear determination as the virus flew around the room for a brief moment. Shank rolled out of the way as it took a nosedive before rushing out of the room once more. This time, Shiv followed in suit.

"No. . ." was all Shank could murmur, pushing herself to her feet. She frowned at Yesss as she came up beside her. For a few seconds the two stared at each other. While Shank was nervous on the inside, it was clear that the algorithm looked pretty scared herself.

They both seemed to have an unspoken understanding between each other—that both of them were afraid. Without any more hesitation, the two ran side by side as they headed after where the ex-Slaughter Race character had disappeared.

All of BuzzzTube had been evacuated by that point, save for Yesss and Shank. The front doors were just closing, Shiv's voice just fading away as she chased after the virus.

 _She's going to get herself killed!_

These words played over and over again in Shank's mind. Curse the creators of her game for programming her so realistically, because at this point, she was sure her heart was going to leap into her throat and start to choke her from how hard it was pounding.

The two burst outside, and were just catching their breath when they heard a cry of victory.

"Ha!" it was Shiv, and she was looking quite proud of herself from where she stood. She was balancing on one foot, right at the edge of the Internet's pathway beneath her feet. She had pushed herself so far forward she could easily fall forward if she lost her balance, falling to who knows where.

Her metal contraption's fingers were wrapped tightly around the virus, which was squirming and attempting to get out. The metal was extended to its limit as the virus moved around in the air, high above her. Shiv's eyes reflected the monstrosity, but she was grinning as she glanced toward Yesss, "Did you get that on film?"

Yesss and Shank had only just breathed a sigh of relief before the algorithm responded, "Maybe if you hadn't gone running off I could've. So, no." She was still holding up her phone, staring at Shiv with an annoyed look on her face.

Shank's fists tightened at her sides. It was clear that while Yesss had seemed afraid, she was right back to her old self—using Shiv for money and traction for her site.

"Well, whatever. The Internet can thank _me_ for saving it, now. Finally, this thing will stop terrorizing everyone and we can get on with our routine. My last video barely scraped a hundred thousand hearts because of _you_." She cast an annoyed glare up at the virus, which was staring at her and still wildly squirming. "Now that you're mine. . . heh, I'm gonna teach you a lesson."

The virus only let out a snarl as its struggling only increased, and Shiv slowly started to reel in the false hand. She was smirking.

Shank was beside herself. Not only had she embarrassed herself in showing up uninvited, but she'd gotten so worried about Shiv's safety. It wasn't like she was obligated to worry—rather, she shouldn't after the things Shiv had said—but she clearly had no reason to since she was fine. It had appeared that Shiv had grown so much since she left Slaughter Race that she didn't need _any_ help from the old people in her life anymore.

"And what do you plan on doing with it now that you have it?" Shank asked with a frown. "Let it go, and everyone's in danger again."

There was no reply.

Shiv was daring to stare into the face of the beast, and now she had completely reeled in the hand. She turned her forearm over so that she could examine it more closely. The virus was still moving around in its binds, attempting to get loose. The metal hand had a cold grip around it, though, and it wasn't going to let go anytime soon. Shank couldn't help but feel uneasy again, now that the virus was practically a foot away from Shiv's body.

"Yesss, I want a closeup of it." Shiv called.

"Ha, no way, girl. I'm not getting near that thing." Yesss shook her head.

"This video is gonna get me _so_ many hearts. It's just the thing to put me back on top again!"

Shank only rolled her eyes, and started to head off when she saw they were ignoring her existence. Her blood was boiling, and she was _extremely_ aggravated by the events that had just taken place in front of her. As she went down the stairs, she started over toward her car which she'd messily parked.

That's when she heard it. She'd looked away for only a moment, but when Shank turned her head back again, she saw that the virus had actually managed to break free of some of the fingers. Shiv's eyes were wide, in disbelief that it had managed to break her equipment. But she started to act fast, digging around in her pocket as if looking for something.

"Let it go!" Shank yelled at her.

"Shut up, you're distracting me!" Shiv threw her way, her teeth grit as she tried to get it under control. "I'm not gonna let this thing get away from me now that I've got it _right_ where I—!"

Shiv never did finish her sentence. Once the virus broke free of its captor, it let out a snarl before aiming its pointed, threatening tail right in her direction.

Shank and Yesss's eyes both widened, but neither of them could do anything from where they were standing when the tail, in one swift motion, darted forward and found itself lodged within Shiv's chest.

All of the air was sucked out of Shank's lungs in an instant, and her throat quickly became tight.

The look on Shiv's face was unlike anything Shank had ever seen before. There was purely stun on her face, and a sudden fear, too. Her body exploded into pink coding as binary ran up and down her form, and though it looked painful to Shank she made no noise, none at all—not even a gasp. The virus was trying to free itself, but despite how hard it tugged, its tail was stuck in Shiv's form.

She was starting to lose her balance as she looked at Shank one last time before she stumbled backwards, an emotionless look on her face as she started to fall. Finally breaking free of her stun, Shank's feet started to move.

"No!"

She could hardly even get her scream out as she rushed to the side, and she reached out one hand to Shiv. Her fingers just barely grazed Shiv's before something grabbed her from behind, pulling Shank back from the edge. Shank's stare never left Shiv's deep-blue eyes, though. The stun was still clear in the BuzzzTube star's eyes even as her body got farther and farther away, falling deep into the abyss of the old, dead part of the web. The virus was still snarling and trying to break free, and it echoed until the two were far out of sight, sucked into the darkness of the unknown as they faded into the blue, dusty fog.

Shank hadn't yet realized that it was none other than Yesss who had come up behind her and saved her from falling, securing both arms around the Slaughter Race character's waist. Both of them wore an expression of disbelief and shock. She could hardly believe what she had just seen.

One hand clasped over her mouth as her eyes began to fill with tears as she leaned longingly over the edge. The person she loved the most—despite what had happened between them—had just disappeared before her very eyes. There would be no way to survive that fall—that was all Shank could think about.

She would regenerate from the impact of the fall alone. The virus had clearly struck her, and without a code in Slaughter Race that could be fixed, she was destined for doom.

She had spent so much time trying to get over Shiv, attempting to erase all the times they had shared together out of her mind, trying to force herself to hate her—but she could not. A little piece of her never stopped loving her. And maybe, that's what hurt her the most—that she had never reconciled with her and tried to fix things, when Shank was so in love with her.

She felt overwhelming guilt and grief wash over her as for the first time in her life, she sobbed. Yesss, though she did not know her well, only hugged her. A distant look was clear in the algorithm's face as she processed what they both had just seen. But the Slaughter Race leader was absolutely beside herself.

Shank had failed to keep the person who meant the most to her safe.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Oh. Boy.

Well. . . first and foremost, I am sincerely sorry for neglecting this story for. . . _two months_. I hit writer's block the moment the semester ended, and it hit _hard_. I also took a week long vacation, so I had my brain shut off to all writing during that time. When I came back, the writer's block was twice as bad thanks to vacationing and finals.

I've been working tirelessly at this chapter for days, figuring out the kinks. To be perfectly frank with you, this chapter was meant to be half as short (and to be franker, it could be considered _two_ chapters in one). But, the writer's block lifted, and here we are. I can't be more relieved to be able to say chapter eight is completed and here for you to read.

And boy, am I _excited_ for you to read it. From this chapter, you can _really_ tell I like 'unlikely/unexpected friendships' haha.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

 **Reviews;**

 **AsukaTirento** : Oh gosh, I'm so glad to hear you say that. I can also see that Shiv is the bad sides of the two of them. While I certainly meant to make a comparison to Vanellope, I didn't realize I'd done it with Ralph as well, haha. Thank you so much, your reviews make my heart so happy :)

 **PutMoneyInThyPurse** : Thank you so much! I'm really honored to receive such a compliment, aaahh! Oh yes, I do believe I spoke for the whole fandom with that little bit hahaha. I'm glad someone caught onto that ;) hehe, I try to make some things... not so obvious. And perhaps it is not the case, you'll have to see. Thank you so much for this review. I love all the little details that you broke down. You're great, and your review made my day. And all the hearts to _you_ friend!

 **DaBlueVanellope** : Yep, that was a flashback! :)

 **crankyman7** : Survivor's guilt indeed, something that Vanellope is also actively struggling with.

 **thunderbird shadow** : Thank you for your reviews :D

 **FarrrEast** : Sorry to keep you waiting, but it's here now!

 **SolarFlare579** : Haha, it was a flashback and not present time, just for clarification :) thank you so much.

 **Guest** : Your wish is my command.

 **Tigress-is-Awesome** : To be honest the ending made me sad as well. Thanks so much for your review! And I'm so glad someone took notice of that :D I added that little detail in sneakily, and I'm happy it paid off haha.

I wanted to thank everyone once again for leaving such fantastic and supportive reviews. You guys always make my day with what you write to me.

Now, onto the chapter.

* * *

 ** _Chapter 8_**

* * *

The days had gone by slow—more slowly than they ever had in Vanellope's entire life. Fifteen years of solitude, boredom, bitterness and anger among other unwanted feelings had felt more like fifteen- _thousand_ years long; now, though, those long, torturous years felt like the blink of an eye in comparison to Vanellope's perception of time now.

She wasn't even sure what day it was now. She wouldn't bother to check, nor did she care very much at all. After all, what did it matter when her family was gone? Not to mention her friends, her subjects, and everything she'd ever known. All gone, in the blink of an eye, and she had taken them all for granted when she chose to leave them behind.

What she would give now to go back to Litwak's and stay there with Ralph and the others. To laugh with Ralph as the two of them messed around during Game Central Station's break hours, to know that she was safe whenever she was around her favorite three people in the whole wide world, to know she wasn't alone again. But just like that, in an unexpected high of euphoria at the thought of going off to a new game and having a new life—she threw everything away, and now she could never get any of it back. And how it saddened her.

Vanellope, though, was used to sadness—just not this kind. She had wept her fair share of tears during those fifteen years she spent all alone. Whether it be after a brutal encounter with one of the racers, the NPCs treating her like an actual disease, or King Candy throwing a friendly reminder her way of how she could never race, it would get to her every time. It would slowly eat away at her core, break down her resolve, and reduce her to nothing more than a sobbing, angry mess of glitching. Over time there was a pit of anger that formed in her chest and would stay there, aching every time and reminding her of how unneeded she was in the game she was stuck in.

That pit of anger, though, was back after it had been filled for a few years when she was happy and freed from Turbo's wrath. Instead of anger, though, it was a mixture of regret and grief swirling together—and it always, always ached when her old life and family came to mind.

But now, she couldn't cry anymore. She'd done plenty of that. Maybe her tear ducts were broken, and that's why she couldn't cry anymore. Or maybe she had finally accepted that this was reality, and she couldn't change reality, and there was no use crying over it anymore. Whatever the case, she was still grieving either way.

At least she wasn't alone. During her lowest point, she hadn't been by herself for a moment. She was glad to have her new friends—the princesses—who were there for her, and she appreciated all of their efforts greatly. What they could not fix, though, was that ache in Vanellope's chest. Heck, not even Felix's hammer could fix something like that.

Vanellope was all alone as she walked around the OhMyDisney website, her hands shoved into her hoodie pocket as she walked along. She could hardly stand being around so many happy characters and people when _her_ world had fallen apart.

It made her bitter all the more that none of them had experienced pain like she had felt. Vanellope was fully convinced the world was against _her_. First, fifteen years of torture, and then when she had finally found true joy in her life, it all was ripped from her? And then the rest of the world gets to laugh and be cheery?

Where was the fairness in that?

She forced herself to cast her gaze at the ground; she pulled up her hood, and tried her hardest to tune out the happiness that surrounded her. Maybe time out of the princesses lounge _wasn't_ doing her very much good after all.

But, if Ariel started singing about something random one more time, Vanellope might've actually lost her mind. She loved the redheaded princess to bits, but how cheery she was all the time wasn't really helping her mental state all that much. She _was_ scheduled to go touring around the site with Ariel and Belle, but no way was that happening. Not while she was still sane. Easy fix—she simply snuck out right under the princess' noses, without a single one noticing she had slipped away.

"What'cha doing out here lassie, takin' a daunner all by yerself?"

Well, almost.

Vanellope, who had been leaning up against the side of a building looked up to see she wasn't alone now. A different redhead was leaning against the building beside her, looking down curiously. Even with a hood pulled over her head, those curly red locks gave away her identity immediately.

If Vanellope had acquired one skill throughout her stay at the princesses lounge which she was proud of, it was learning 'how to speak Merida.' Well, somewhat. Though she could hardly understand her before, now she made better sense. At least now she could start putting two and two together where it counted most.

"I think I just needed to get out a little." Vanellope shrugged.

"Oh. Want juice?" Merida asked, and the racer perked a little. She glanced to see that Merida was extending one arm, a bottle of soda in hand. The racer blinked and gratefully took it.

"Thanks." She said. Her heart couldn't help but ache a little when she took a sip and realized it was cola. It reminded her of her old home, where she slept for fifteen years. She shook it off with a sigh.

"So, needed to get out a little, huh? Aye, I think that'd do ya some good. The others can be downright divs sometimes, treating ya like a bairn."

"Uh. . . a _what_ now?"

"Sorry—a wee bab."

"Oh." Vanellope tapped the top of the soda bottle against her chin thoughtfully. "I. . . guess the thing is, I know they have good intentions. . . but I just. . . think I needed some space." Vanellope's code flickered with a glitch, and she scoffed. "It's funny. About seven years ago I would've done anything to have a single friend, and now. . . now I would rather be all alone again."

Merida had pulled out an arrow, and was running one finger along the sharp tip, her blue eyes trained intently on it. "That's not gonna happen, so long as they're all alive. Jammy, aren'tcha?"

"Yep. Whoop-dee-freakin'-doo." Vanellope frowned.

Merida looked at her curiously, and then looked back to her arrow, "Ya wanna gan somewhere with me? Away from all the noise? I'll show ya my special spot."

Vanellope's shoulders shrugged, and that was enough for Merida. She threw the arrow back in her quiver and placed two fingers in her mouth, whistling.

The candy-themed child watched as through the crowd of people, a horse came running along. He came to a halt in front of the princesses before rearing for a moment, then settling. Vanellope watched Merida flawlessly rush at him, swinging a leg over and swiftly landing on top of him.

She patted the horse for a moment, and then turned to Vanellope, stretching out one hand. Vanellope hesitantly walked forward before slipping her soda away into her pocket, jumping up to grab her hand. The moment she did, Merida tugged her up in one swift motion and Vanellope found herself sitting between the neck of a horse and the princess.

A moment later, they were off. Vanellope had never rode on a horse before, but she had to admit she kind of enjoyed the ride. It was a quiet one, aside from the sound of the hooves clacking against the ground.

Vanellope's eyes were looking everywhere as they sped off through the web. She desperately was looking around, trying to possibly catch sight of anyone she knew, but she realized quickly how. . . _stupid_ it was, to think they were alive. She only kicked herself internally, aggravated by the idea of hope in a situation like this. There was absolutely no hope of their survival.

They were gone.

End of the story.

"Alright lassie, get ready. I'll hold onto ya, yer gonna be fine, but it'll be a little rough of a landing." Merida warned.

"Wait, _what_?" Vanellope asked, eyes wide when she noticed the black stallion nearing the edge without hesitation.

"Jump, Angus!" Merida commanded, pulling Vanellope toward her.

"Are you crazy?!" Vanellope hollered, just as Angus took flight. She shut her eyes, "Oh, you _really are crazy_!"

They didn't end up jumping down very far. Something broke the fall, and Vanellope cracked open one eye just out of curiosity. It seemed to be an old, broken sign that used to belong to a website which they had landed upon—a layer of dust came flying off of the plastic material.

She noticed that a blue fog was now surrounding them. Confusion swamped over her—she had thought this 'bottom' of the Internet was actually bottomless.

Regrettably she remembered the time she had ripped away the medal she had made for Ralph, and how she had heartlessly without a care threw it over the side, hoping it would disappear into some sort of oblivion. He'd still gotten it back, though—which meant he had been somewhere down in the bottom, which she hadn't really thought about before.

Angus whinnied, and started slowing down as he now started to navigate his way down the spiral staircase of piled up rubble. It was mostly broken metals that they were traveling over—most was scrapped. In the distance she could see a flickering light, lighting up the word _Vine_ in green. Vanellope's eyebrows knitted together in concern, feeling a bit uneasy by how haunting it looked.

"What is this place?" she asked, suppressing a shiver.

"I know it might seem a bit dauntin' to ya, but it's the quietest place on the web. Sometimes when I need'ta think, I come here since it's deserted. This place is where dead sites and apps among other things go once they go offline. If the lassies ever caught me down here, I think I'd be a goner. I like'ta call it the Panbread Bucket."

"You mind translating that for me? I'm only about eighty-percent fluent in Merida." Vanellope's eyelids fell halfway as she craned her neck toward the princess.

"The dead trash." The red-head answered matter-of-factly, a delighted smile on her face. "Fitting name, don'tcha think?"

"Oh yes, the 'Panbread Bucket' is a great name." Vanellope sighed.

Some time passed by—apparently, this bottom went down far—and their descent came to a stop as Angus finally halted. Merida slipped off the back of the horse, and Vanellope followed suit. The racer coughed a bit as some dust came off of the ground. "Geez." Her voice echoed for a moment, and she paused to take note of how quiet it actually was.

She took a moment to survey the various pieces of broken building that surrounded them, reduced almost to rubble in some spots. The blue fog made it a little harder to see far away, but in the distance there was some larger buildings that barely looked that damaged at all. Ralph had come down to a place like this? _Willingly_? Just to get their medal back? Her eyes flitted to the ground, and that ache that she had become so used to burned in her chest as guilt washed over her.

She reached around her neck, one hand wrapping around the broken heart. Vanellope quickly started to feel ill, and she tucked it away again, being unable to look at it in full. The bracelet on her wrist was also a grim reminder of what she used to have before she mindlessly threw it all away just to. . . pursue some _stupid dream_.

"Yer still thinkin' about yer family, aren'cha?" Merida asked, who had been watching her face carefully.

"Yeah. . ." Vanellope replied.

"And yer regrettin' the choice in leavin' them, and wanting'ta change yer fate?" she inquired. Vanellope only nodded as the redheaded princess took a place beside her. "We're a lot alike."

"Uh. . . we are?" the child tilted her head to the side uncertainly. Merida nodded.

"I also wanted'ta change my fate, like ya did yerself. I was supposed'ta marry young because of tradition. So, I found a witch—and I made her make me a spell that I could use on my mum, and that ended up turning my mum into a bear."

"You _what_?!" Vanellope squeaked, a glitch running through her code as her eyes widened in horror. "That's not the same thing at all!"

Merida went on, ignoring Vanellope's alarm, "I made a mistake. I thought my mum was gonna be a bear forever, but I fixed it in the end. The point is lass, that we've both made mistakes. We couldn't have known what consequences might come from wanting'ta change our fates. We live'n we learn."

Vanellope suddenly felt a little bitter. A rush of anger found its way coming out all of a sudden as she crossed her arms. "Yeah, well, _you_ got your happy ending. My friends didn't, neither did I. But it's not like I deserve it anyway."

Merida blinked as she saw Vanellope's puffed out cheeks. Her anger and sadness was almost contagious; it was thick in the air like a smog, so dense it could be sliced through with a knife. The redhead stared thoughtfully for a moment before she understood.

"Yer blamin' yerself for survivin'. Listen, lassie—ya still deserve'ta live happily, even if it hurts right now. I know how it feels'ta want'ta be able'ta take someone's place—ta save them from their fate. Don't think I don't know what's goin' on in yer head. Quit thinkin' that because yer still alive that it's a crime, and that it should'a been _yerself_ instead."

Vanellope's eyes widened. Her fingertips felt numb as these words processed in her mind. She pouted and looked away, her coding splitting up into strands of numbers. "You're right. I do think that."

"But don't blame yerself, lass. Okay? You have every right'ta continue on."

Vanellope only nodded halfheartedly. Regardless of whatever she was going to hear, she was not going to stop blaming herself; she definitely was not convinced she had 'every right' to continue on without those she loved. She wouldn't believe that for a long time, at least. Seeing her friends' faces flashing in her mind was growing painful for her, and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly for a moment. She breathed out deeply before reopening them.

"So. . . no one lives down here? This is just. . . really a dead zone?" she turned to look at Merida, who had been still watching her. The redheaded teen easily saw the change in subject, and left the old topic behind alongside the younger girl.

"Aye." Merida nodded, "It's a sin, but there's not much here for anyone. They're auld sites, after all. That's not why I wanted'ta bring ya down here, though."

Vanellope's arms were at her sides as the redhead walked up to her. She pulled her bow from off her back, reaching for an arrow as well.

"Why then?" Vanellope asked curiously, knowing she was probably about to find out.

"I wanna teach ya how'ta shoot." Merida grinned.

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa_ ," Vanellope put her hands up, a glitch running through her code as a wave of uneasiness fell over her, "why?"

"A'body had their chance to cheer ya up, and that didn't work so well. Here's my way. Whenever I'm down, shootin' gets me cheery again."

"Look, Merida, it sounds cool and all. . . but Mulan already tried to pull this gig already with her sword, and I couldn't even lift the thing up." Vanellope pointed out.

"Does it look like a sword t'ya?" Merida gave the bow a little shake. "C'mon!"

Vanellope figured she wouldn't get out of the web's graveyard if she didn't comply, so she only sighed. She looked up, "Okay. . . but this means I'll have to teach you how to race sometime. Got it?"

Merida grinned before she put her full attention to her bow, "Can't be that hard, lassie; I can race on horseback plenty fine. Now, watch me. See that?" she gestured to one of the half-collapsed buildings, which was leaning so far over it might tilt over any second now. "I'm goin'ta batter up the windows."

Vanellope's eyes watched carefully as Merida's face grew serious—the most serious Vanellope had seen her. She raised the bow, pulling the arrow quickly into its rightful position. It took her a mere moment of internal calculation before she fired off repeatedly. Vanellope's eyes were wide as she watched Merida take out every window, her accuracy being perfect. The shattering of glass echoed throughout the place.

"Whoa! You. . . you really don't miss, do you?" Vanellope asked, sounding impressed.

Merida smirked, looking quite proud of herself, "No, no I don't. Now, yer turn. I'll help ya, don't worry."

Vanellope couldn't help but feel a bit excited all of a sudden as her sadness started to slip from her mind. Merida got on her knees to be leveled with Vanellope. The younger girl had the bow dropped in her hands, and she felt determination seize her as she gripped onto it.

"Now hold on'ta the arrow like this. Relax yer arm a little bit, yer not tryin'ta kill somebody. Face me, now turn yer head left, that's it. Shoulders back a bit more, and watch the feet. . . there ya go. Now, look at where yer aimin'."

Vanellope's eyes searched for a target. There was a few more windows on that building Merida had fired at earlier, but she needed a closer target.

Her eyes finally landed on another half-fallen building that was leaning away, but the windows were closer. A few were already broken; the few that were intact, though, was all that mattered to Vanellope. Her eyes narrowed.

"Target acquired."

"Alright. Pull back. . ." Merida said, pulling on Vanellope's arm as she tried to steady her. The red-head couldn't stop from grinning when she saw how serious Vanellope was. "Now let'er rip."

Vanellope let go of the arrow, and she watched as it flew away. It didn't hit the window—instead, it hit the wall of the building with a disappointing _clunk_ and then fell down into the rubble. She felt disappointment wash over her, a frown on her face now.

"Don'tcha get all sour on me, it was a well shot for a first. Loosen up a bit."

Vanellope did as she was told, determined more than before to get this shot right. A second time, and still, no success. She breathed out, realizing how tense she actually felt. Then, she focused.

The third time, she listened as Merida repeated her instructions, taking note of every word. She made sure she was in a good position, and then she aimed, and fired.

The arrow whizzed out and there was a satisfying _crrkk_ as the window shattered. Vanellope's eyes widened, and a huge smile appeared on her face.

"I did it! I actually did it!" she said with glee, and for the first time in a long time, she started to laugh as she bounced around.

"I'm proud. Even though yer a wee yin, ya still have good posture." Merida watched as Vanellope glitched around for a moment more before stopping in front of her.

"I wanna do it again." Vanellope said, eyes glowing with excitement.

This time around, it was easier to get into position again. Vanellope grinned as she got ready to fire off again.

That's when she fired again, and had another successful shot. Then, another. This time, Merida laughed with her as Vanellope got ready to fire again, trying to pause in her laughter as she shot again.

But that's when the world around her seemed to change as she got sucked into her mind.

 _Moments before she was in graveyard of the Internet, and the next she was transported somewhere completely different. Her body stiffened as she looked at the floor. Dark grating was below her feet; it looked foggy. In front of her were a bunch of targets meant to be shot at—the one she was aiming at was completely destroyed. And, the target was in the shape of a Cybug._

 _Vanellope paused in shock, noticing that she was holding something else in her hands now—her eyes widened slightly to see that it was a gun, some steam coming out of the front of it. That's when she knew where she was._

 _"You're a true natural, kiddo. Pretty soon, you'll be the sergeant around here."_

 _At that voice, Vanellope froze up, and her eyes slowly moved to see that Calhoun was crouched beside her. A proud look was on her face. Vanellope didn't dare look away, feeling a bit shaky as her breathing hitched in her throat. Calhoun's smile seemed to fade as she noticed the grin dripping off of Vanellope's face, instead replaced by teary eyes._

 _"What's the matter?" the woman asked, now sounding fully concerned._

 _Vanellope's lip trembled as she forced out anything she possibly could, "Sarge?"_

 _"I'm right here, kiddo." Calhoun gestured to herself as Vanellope lowered the gun._

 _Well, she looked real. The worry in her crystal blue eyes seemed real. And she sounded real, too._

 _The gun dropped from Vanellope's hands as she rushed forward, finding her arms around the sergeant's neck. She shut her eyes tightly as she felt a warmth embrace her as arms wrapped around her small form._

 _"What's gotten into you?" Calhoun asked._

 _"I'm just so glad you're here!" Vanellope answered, clinging to her as if for dear life. She could hardly believe that this was real! This was reality, not a nightmare, and she was so happy._

 _"Vanellope." Calhoun broke into her inner thoughts._

 _"Y-yeah?" Vanellope asked, voice dripping with a mixture of joy and relief._

 _"Vanell—"_

"— _ope_!"

The child's eyes widened when she realized she was hearing Merida's voice now, and her eyes opened as she was taken back to reality. Tears fell from her eyes, and unbeknownst to her, she had been in the middle of pulling back an arrow. She let it fly carelessly away, and it flew straight past the building and over a hill of rubble.

The two watched as it went—both with shocked expressions on their faces. Vanellope quickly wiped her eyes against her sleeve, trying to come back to reality in full. Merida turned her attention back to Vanellope the second it was out of sight.

"Are ya alright? Ya froze up, and—"

Merida was in the middle of asking, when there was a piercing cry of pain coming from somewhere in the distance. It echoed, making chills run up and down Vanellope's spine. She didn't even have time to process whatever _that_ had been—it felt so, so real. But she could think about it later.

She and Merida turned toward the sound—it had come from where the arrow had landed. Both of them looked back at each other.

"I thought you said the Panbread Bucket was abandoned!" Vanellope said with a hiss.

"Shush! Keep yer voice down, 'n that's what I thought!" Without hesitation the two headed off toward the sound. Vanellope glitched as she went. She felt worry wash over her in an instant. Had she actually hurt somebody due to her carelessness of. . . _daydreaming_? _Imagining_ things? "Oi! Wait for me!" Merida hissed, but Vanellope was too far away, and wasn't listening.

The racer got to the top of the hill of rubbish. Vanellope's brows knitted in a frown as she strained to see through the fog.

"Hello?" she called out.

She was greeted with silence.

Cautiously she slid down the hill of rubble and landed on her feet, patting herself off as she looked around. It was almost like the fog was thicker over on the other side; at least, that's what it felt like. She squinted to see if anything was there, but she easily failed.

Her eyes then hit the ground. She bent down, a bit surprised when she saw there was a splatter of crimson liquid on the ground—and that _definitely_ was not jelly donut filling. That's when she felt like something was watching her, and she uneasily straightened back up.

It was so quiet that Vanellope could hear _everything_ , and there was a clear sound of the arrow being removed from skin, as it clearly was still piercing its target. There was a groan of pain—and it didn't sound too happy.

 _Hey, sorry for shooting you_ —Vanellope plotted saying in her mind— _it was an accident._ She turned though, and from the corner of her eye, she felt tense as through the fog, a person appeared, and now she hesitated. She could only see the outline—and that was enough to make her frown. Anyone down here in the dump might not be so friendly. As a result of her hesitation, she didn't even speak.

"Quite the unapologetic little brat, aren't you?" the voice drifted to her, and Vanellope felt a chill run down her spine. The voice sounded so hostile, no, so _strange_ that she couldn't help but feel afraid.

A glitch ran through her code as she remained silent. That's when she heard some rustling behind her.

"Don't run off like that, yer worse than me after I have a fight with my mum—" Merida was saying, but then she paused when she, too, noticed the figure.

Silence from all three. Vanellope was unsure of her next move, but the other princess was already plotting something. Merida slowly moved to grab an arrow from her quiver, but froze when the outline spoke again.

"Oh, there's _two_ annoying brats—so which one of you shot me? I guess it doesn't matter. Did you want your arrow back? Here! Take it." There was a giggle trailing behind the words.

At that, Merida grabbed Vanellope's hand and tugged her behind her as quickly as she could to shield her. Not a second later the sound of an arrow whizzing through the air echoed throughout the fallen place—and Merida could not suppress the shock at how _fast_ it was going despite the clear lack of a bow as she kept her eyes trained on it. It was almost nonhuman. The two girls cowered down and prepared for some sort of impact, when the arrow flew right past the both of them and hit the building behind them.

"That huddy. . ." Merida hissed under her breath.

Vanellope, who had shut her eyes, opened them up in confusion. She turned her head and glanced to see that the arrow was, in fact, sticking out of the side of a half-fallen building that was leaning in their direction. But through the blue fog, it was clear it wasn't just an ordinary arrow anymore. At the end, strapped on tight, was a small black device with a red light flashing on it, barely visible through the thick fog. The beeps made it clear what its intention was as the delay in-between them grew shorter.

"Run!" Vanellope squeaked, grabbing onto Merida's hand as she rushed off. She glitched up the hill of rubble, hoping to get to the other side where Merida's horse was still waiting. The two of them went as fast as they could together.

A moment later, the sound of explosion sounded off just as the two got to the top of the hill.

Both let out a scream of surprise as the force blew up the building and also sent them flying forward. Vanellope scrunched her eyes shut as the ground came running at her, and she skidded against gravel, glitching in recoil when sharp bits stuck in her sides. Vanellope's ears were ringing from the explosion, and she was seeing double for a moment. When her vision cleared, she coughed a bit as the dust started to settle, and forced herself to turn and see Merida was struggling to push herself up.

The explosion had rattled the entirety of the surrounding area, and as a result, some of the other old website buildings were starting to collapse for good. Vanellope's feet moved for her as she glitched upright and raced toward her friend. The shadow of a mid-falling building was hovering over her as she struggled to regain her strength. Vanellope was faster, though, as she grabbed onto her friend's hand and then glitched away. Just as the two disappeared in a flash, the building collapsed.

Vanellope was catching her breath now as she stood a little ways away from the now broken building, wincing a bit at all the riled up dust. She glanced to see that Merida was finally coming back to, who also was recovering with some raspy coughs. Despite the ringing that was still in both of their ears, they were otherwise unscathed. That's when Merida grabbed Vanellope's hand and bolted.

The child looked over her shoulder to see that, through the blue fog and collected dust, there was a just visible outline atop the hill from which they'd come. And then, a bone-chilling laugh followed. Vanellope's heart was beating so fast she was sure it would jump out of her throat, and she found herself unable to take her eyes away from the figure's outline. The dust from the collapsed buildings, though, had finally found its way up in the air, and the figure's outline slowly dissipated into nothingness.

Merida didn't hesitate in the slightest as she jumped on the horse's back, who had been still waiting patiently—though, a bit nervous now from all the excitement—and they took off and began to ascend up the spiral staircase of rubble and fallen metal.

Vanellope watched over her shoulder the whole time, half-expecting to see whoever had attacked them running behind them to see the dirty deed of killing them done as they started uphill. When the coast was clear, there was relief.

"Heh. . . heh, that was close!" Vanellope started to nervously laugh. The older princess joined in, sounding even more awkward.

"That couldn'ta gone any worser!" Merida agreed, as she laughed to.

That was, until, Vanellope opened her eyes again when there was a loud snarl coming from behind them. Both Merida and Vanellope stopped laughing at the same time and turned their heads, eyes wide with surprise when they saw that three creatures were gaining on them.

"Sweet mother of monkey milk! What are those things?" Vanellope cried.

Their eyes glowed an ominous yellow—making chills run up and down her spine. Their mouths gaped with rows of sharp teeth, their bodies long and limbless like snakes. They zigzagged through the air with purpose to hurt the girls, but one thing definitely alarmed Vanellope the most. Though their faces appeared stable, their tail ends giltched and exploded with vibrant red binary. It was enough to nearly make her heart stop—between the yellow eyes and red glitching, she couldn't get. . . _him_ out of her head.

It made her feel sick.

"Viruses." Merida hissed, and then saw the look of horror on her companion's face. "Don't go all whitey on me now, I need yer help ta skelp 'em!"

"What?!" Vanellope's eyes widened. "Let me drive the horse instead! I'm good at racing, not at _attacking_!"

"There's trouble up ahead too, so just do as yer told!" Merida said, shoving her bow toward Vanellope.

The racer's pupils shrunk a little as she held it in her hands. She glanced back up to see Merida, who was wielding only an arrow, sink the sharp tip into the viruses as they came at her. She nailed one just as it lunged at her. It crackled with binary as it violently shook, still trying to get to the red-headed princess as it struggled. She, however, had a stern frown on her face as she finally sank it in just deeply enough and it went still; without a care, she flicked it off her arrow and waited for the next one.

"I'm sorry! This is my fault because I was. . . I was daydreaming!" Vanellope frowned, and yelled over the snarls of viruses.

"It's fine! Now shoot!" Merida called back.

With the wind rippling through Vanellope's hair, she realized what she had to do. She closed her eyes, and started mumbling to herself.

"Okay, you can do this. You've dealt with Turbo, right? You can definitely deal with a bunch of measly viruses. Yeah, it's just as easy as shooting one of Calhoun's guns!"

Though she wasn't as confident as she would've liked. . .

Her brows furrowed as her mind started racing.

 _Oh, yeah, you've dealt with Turbo alright—but you couldn't even keep your precious family and friends safe! Pathetic! You're just going to die here and join the others as you should! What makes you so special that you get away while everyone else dies? You don't even deserve that right! What you really deserve is to be infected by a virus since you're so selfish. You're nothing more than a selfish little brat._

As the horrid thoughts filled her mind, tormenting her, tears managed to swell up in her eyes. She grit her teeth and she continued to stay in her self-induced trance even when one of the viruses snapped at her, nearly sinking its teeth into her arm.

"Oi! Stay with me!" Merida shouted at her, and that woke her up as she glanced in alarm to see the viruses readying themselves to actually hurt her this time. "Do it fer them!"

"W-what?" Vanellope stammered, looking at the redhead as she sank her arrow into another virus; it whined as she whisked it away. Merida faced her, a stern looking on her face.

"Live on fer yer friends! It's what they would want, right? They wouldn't want'ta see ya sad and believin' it should'a been _yerself_ instead who was gone! So do this, _live on,_ fer them! Make 'em proud!"

Vanellope searched Merida's face, her eyes wide. The words echoed in the young girl's mind for a moment, and something seemed to click.

 _Since when was it selfish to continue going on? No. . . they would want me to, I know they would. They risked_ their _lives for me in the past so that I could live on, a happy life free of that monster. . ._

Her mind had been a torrent of agony, but now all those dark thoughts started to push away. A glitch ran through her code and a concentrated look overcame her face. Her brows furrowed together again as she snagged an arrow from Merida's quiver.

Merida glanced over her shoulder, a delighted look quickly coming to her face as she saw Vanellope fire an arrow straight into the closest virus's mouth. It squeaked before collapsing.

"I knew ya had it in you, ya wee yin!" Merida hollered with a laugh.

At this encouragement, the racer couldn't help but smile. Then she frowned again as she pulled another arrow, attacking the next virus. But more just kept coming. Vanellope paled as six more appeared when she took out three. They had only a few arrows left.

She fired off more accurate shots—the training with Calhoun in the past had certainly paid off—though the last virus she'd shot had gotten a bit too close.

"We're almost to the top!" Merida informed her, and Vanellope felt some relief. Though she had just let loose her last arrow, and now there were viruses gaining on them.

"Think, Vanellope, think!" her mind was scrambling with any ideas on what she should do. She dug in her pockets to see if she had anything to possibly distract them with.

Her hand met a bottle's. She had forgotten all about her soda—it was warm now, but that didn't matter; she wasn't going to be drinking it now.

With Merida's bow still in one hand, she aggressively shook the bottle of cola with the other. She was hoping this would work to distract them for just a second, so they could make their great escape—

 _Pop!_ The cap blew off and cola came spewing out, just as the nearest virus dove toward her. The soda sprayed all over it, and in recoil the virus let out a heinous, pained screech. Vanellope's eyes were wide as she saw steam coming off the nasty little creature, and electric sparks as well—as if it was short-circuiting. No, perhaps that was exactly what was happening.

The virus, still steaming, eventually fell from midair and began its long descent to the ground as its screams grew distant. The others which had been following seemed to become afraid, and stopped their pursuit as they scattered away, going back from where they came.

Vanellope felt an arm wrap around her to secure her as she was pulled back to the front, and a moment later Angus leapt up and they were back on the usual path of the Internet as if they were never down there. Finally, they were out safely. The horse came to a halt, and both girls were panting in relief that they'd gotten away mostly unscathed. Vanellope looked up.

Merida's face was unusually dark now, a mix of confusion and anger clear in her expression. She still was holding onto an arrow, a virus stuck on the end of it as it continued to snap at her.

"I have _never_ encountered _anything_ livin' down there." Merida ran one hand through her curls as she went on, "The burds would have my head fer sure if they knew I put you in danger. I'm sorry, Vanellope, and thanks, ya really saved both our hides back there."

Their ride was now walking at a steady pace, seeming calmer once far away from all the action. Vanellope turned around, and though Merida was fearing the worst, her face was unexpectedly bright with delight.

"Did you see that?! I was shooting them out of the air, and then the soda? Oh man, they hated the soda! It was so great! I didn't think it was gonna work, but then bam!" Vanellope slammed her tiny fists together in glee.

"So. . . yer alright?"

"Hey, it might've been a _little_ scary, but I've taken on _he who shall not be named_ for code's sake—and look, I'm still kicking! After all, whoever that was, I did shoot _them_ first, so I guess I gave them a reason to be angry. . . but the explosives were a bit much. . . and then those viruses came out of nowhere. Huh, maybe it has been too long since I've been out, I think I've forgotten how thrilling a little danger can be, even if it was terrifying."

Merida blinked at this response as Vanellope leaned back, looking up at her with a toothy grin. She was glad to see Vanellope smile, but she was worried about something else.

"I think that huddy sent the viruses after us." She frowned. "And, y'know, I _never_ have seen an arrow go that fast before in my life. Not even I have enough force'ta do somethin' like that, and it seems like that bampot did it effortlessly as well. Without even usin' a bow! That's impossible."

"Well. . . we both saw it."

"Aye, that's the issue. I wish I hadn't, it's gotten my mind ablaze." Merida sighed, and looked away. "No normal person would be able'ta do that. There's somethin' odd about it, I'm tellin' ya. Not'ta mention that. . . someone's willingly livin' down there, or is down there for _some_ reason."

"Don't get your curls in a twist, we probably just invaded their space and that's why they got mad at us—well, aside from my little. . . moment." Vanellope shrugged off her concern, but felt a bit self-conscious of her own actions.

Merida sighed through her nose. She wasn't letting the idea of someone trying to kill them go so easily, but to keep Vanellope's spirits up, she pushed the thought aside. She only nodded slowly, but then she paused, looking up. "By the way, this stays between us two, _right_?"

"Uh huh!" Vanellope couldn't hide her grin. "My lips are _sealed_. I don't feel like getting lectured."

Merida stared at the snarling virus she still had impaled for a moment, and something seemed to click in her mind. She had been severely impressed by how Vanellope's bravery had come out in a time of need. There was just one thing she was missing.

"Ya know what? I think it's time."

"Time for what?"

"Yer gonna see."

* * *

Vanellope's adrenaline from the events from before had died down. Her mood seemed to fall when she saw the familiar face of OhMyDisney. Time away had did her good. . . _somewhat_. Quiet was shared between the two girls as they both were lost in thought. Vanellope hadn't had time to think about it then, but now she was thinking about how she had gotten so lost in that daydream with Calhoun.

It felt a little too real. She'd easily gotten entranced by that moment. Oh, how cruel it was; but she couldn't get angry at herself for being reminded of that time in the moment. That day in particular was a fond memory of Vanellope's. It hadn't been long after Turbo's death. Calhoun offered to help teach her how to be able to take care of herself, in case something like Turbo ever happened again. While Vanellope was suspicious of the idea of going alone with her, she could never pass up the opportunity to explore a new game.

That day, though, was the start of a great bond between them. Calhoun was impressed with Vanellope's shooting. She had called her a natural and even suggested she practice on some _real_ Cybugs in the future. And yes, they did it, and Vanellope had much more fun than she had expected with her new friend. Who knew killing bugs could be bonding time?

But thinking about those times hurt now. They shouldn't have. They should have been fond to look back on, but Vanellope couldn't even bear to think about it a second longer. She shook her mind free of the past, and brought herself back to reality.

"Uhhh. . . so where are we going, exactly?" Vanellope asked, raising a brow as Merida made a turn toward a part of the site she hadn't gone to yet.

"Be patient, we're almost there." Merida smirked, which worried Vanellope.

Vanellope's eyes scanned the floor. The Netizens over here weren't dressed up in silly mouse ears and princess gowns and crowns; instead, they donned more serious looking costumes. One caught her eye—they were clad in red and golden robotic armor, their eyes glowing blue. Vanellope's eyes went wide when she spotted one with flowing, golden hair; he was wielding a hammer as he grinned.

A glitch ran through her code as she veered her sight away, being uneasily reminded of a certain someone who _also_ used to wield a hammer.

Merida guided her horse as she went down a small alley between two of the towering buildings, and they strayed from the crowds. Vanellope was feeling more antsy by the second. Though she knew she could trust Merida, their destination was becoming more concerning by the second.

That's when Angus came to a halt, and Merida jumped off her companion. Vanellope glitched off and ended up on the ground beside her redheaded friend.

"We've arrived." Merida gestured to the door that they were now standing outside of. Vanellope blinked, and then she frowned.

"So you brought me to a door?" she asked cheekily.

"Don't give me that type of sass. But I suggest waitin' over there for just a second." Merida pushed Vanellope off to the side. Though Vanellope was curious as to why, she was sure she would find out in a second.

Then the redheaded princess took in a breath as she went up to the door. Her knuckles rapped on it a few times.

There was a moment of silence before there was more knocking. Then, more quiet followed. Vanellope opened her mouth.

"I don't think whoever you're looking for is—" she had started, but was quickly silenced as the door flung open unexpectedly.

A light now filled the alleyway; the form of a gun appeared as it aimed up at Merida, and it was the only thing Vanellope could see. She was really impressed by the technology over in Hero's Duty—and this gun seemed similar to the type of weaponry over there. As in, if fired, it would probably disintegrate the two of them and the whole alleyway instantly. But it was staring Merida right in the face. . . so why wasn't she afraid?

"Oi!" the girl shouted, looking unphased as she pushed it down. "Ya know, this is why this place never gets customers."

"Can't a guy be cautious these days?" a gruff voice responded.

"Who'd ya think was knocking? _Thenoes?_ "

"Thanos—and by the way, we don't talk about that name around here. You coming in or what?"

"I didn't come alone." Merida quickly clarified, and she looked over to where Vanellope was cautiously hiding. The redhead beckoned her over with a hand. The young girl hesitantly came over to join her friend's side. She swallowed harshly as she looked up hesitantly, but then her fear seemed to dissipate. "So, Vanellope, I'd like ya'ta meet Rocket."

The racer took in the stranger's features; the first notable thing was that he was a _raccoon_. For a moment, she was confused as to why Pocahontas had one that didn't talk. Maybe they weren't supposed to talk? She'd seen plenty of talking animals during her time at OhMyDisney, and it didn't really surprise her anymore. But he was somehow different, actually wearing clothes—an orange one piece suit that came down to the knee with black designs running along it.

Most of the crazy hooligans she'd run into—one of them being a yellow bear—decided that just a _shirt_ or nothing at all was fine, so she was more than impressed. The two of them were having a stare down. Vanellope noted that he was not much taller than her as she gazed up at him.

"Where'd you find this one? Candyland?" the raccoon asked sarcastically, not breaking eye contact with her. Vanellope's eyes twitched away as she noticed Merida's fist fly into his shoulder to make him shut up. He frowned at her, but she was staring daggers into him.

"Technically, I'm from _Sugar Rush_ —but close enough." Vanellope answered, giving a cheeky grin as he looked back toward her. "And where are you from? The dumpster?"

She had, on a few occasions, caught Pocahontas's pet raccoon digging through any trash he could find. A nasty habit, but one that seemed unique to his species from what Pocahontas had told her.

Rocket's brows furrowed as Merida quieted a laugh behind her hand, while Vanellope looked satisfied with her response. But a moment later, even the raccoon seemed impressed by the quip as he cracked a half-grin.

"At least you've got humor on you unlike some of Merida's other friends." She nearly missed the extended hand—er, paw?—reaching out to her. "Nice to meet you, kid."

She reached forward and shook it with a grin. "You know, you're _way_ cooler than Meeko."

The name seemed familiar to him as his ear flicked, and Rocket blinked before he looked up at Merida. "I like her already."

The three were inside a moment later. Vanellope was looking all around as the door shut behind them. The floor was metal beneath her feet, and on the walls hung various weapons with pricetags on them.

"How do you two even know each other?" Vanellope inquired, curiosity spread across her expression. Rocket and Merida, who were standing side by side, looked at each other.

"Security around this site is pretty terrible. The story's a bit long, but all that matters is you know she got me and a friend out of some trouble with Storm Troopers. Who thought _they_ could keep the site secure?" Rocket gave an irritated shrug. "Anywho, long story short—ever since she got my buddy and I out of trouble with them, we've been friends ever since."

Vanellope blinked, and then raised a brow, "So you can understand her fine?"

"Takes a while to get her lingo, but yeah," he gave another shrug, "the princesses—sorry, I mean _the prisses_ —must be deaf."

"Wait, let me get this straight—you think the princesses are prisses, but you're friends with Merida?"

"First, I'm also friends with a tree and a rabbit cop, so as you can tell I have no boundaries in selecting friends. Second, have you _seen_ her? She barely qualifies as a princess." Rocket said casually, smirking a bit as Merida's cheeks puffed out.

"Oi, and you barely pass as a raccoon, ya walkin' trash panda!" She pointed at him.

Rocket's tail immediately fluffed out, eyes narrowing as he glared up at her.

" _What_ did you just call me?"

Vanellope's mouth opened to say anything to stop them as the two launched into a back and forth argument. Vanellope had been concerned at first, but seeing how the two of them were grinning made it clear they were having a good time insulting each other, and this was just typical for them.

She tuned them out and her eyes found themselves looking past the weapons on the walls; she caught sight of a bunch of machinery that was in the back, and some tools and such were lying about. It now became clear to her just how techy of a guy Rocket really was. Vanellope didn't know what any of it did or what it was, but she was curious.

Just as fast as the fight had broke out, Merida and Rocket's argument had ended.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure, Curly?" he asked, smirking a bit when Merida seemed annoyed by the nickname. She didn't say anything, but she did pull the arrow out of her quiver which still had the little virus attached. Rocket immediately snatched it from her as he jumped onto his desk, examining it in the light. "Where'd you get one of these?"

"The Panbread Bucket." Merida answered. "We were attacked there."

The raccoon seemed surprised. "You brought a kid down there?"

"Look. . . I just thought takin' her out fer a shoot would get her spirits back up." Merida explained. Rocket looked at her inquisitively as he poked the virus, resulting in it growling. He was obviously waiting for some sort of follow up. Merida went on in a more hushed voice, "Her family's. . . deid recently."

Her friend's face instantly fell, and he poked the virus again as he contemplated the thought. He kept it on its arrow as he shoved the thing into a box, locking the top.

Finally he settled on a response, "Poor kid." Both of them stayed quiet for a moment as reality sank in. Then, the silence was interrupted, "So why'd you bring her here?"

Merida approached the desk, which Rocket was still sitting on. She slammed her hands down, staring at him as they became eye-level.

"I want ya'ta make her a weapon. Every princess needs somethin'ta defend themselves with, and she's good with aiming."

"What? She looks like she couldn't even kill a fly. Actually, where did she go?" he swiveled his head around until he saw her. " _Hey, kid!_ Get away from that!"

Vanellope, not expecting the shout, glitched violently as her heart flew into her throat. She had been poking at the machinery. "Sheesh, okay! Scream a little louder next time, I don't think I heard it all that well!" Vanellope called back, frowning. She headed back over to where the two of them were, and then she became thoughtful as her frown faded. "You know what? You're the first one who hasn't been surprised by my glitch."

"Is that what you call it?" the raccoon asked, sounding interested. "Listen, I've been all over the galaxy, kid. Nothing surprises me anymore, not even a superpower like that." Rocket stroked his chin thoughtfully before going on, "You know. . . since you're running into those nasty viruses anyway, I think you _could_ use something to defend yourself. Just in case you run into them again."

"That's why we're here?" Vanellope looked at Merida excitedly, who nodded. "I never thought about getting one before, but. . . ooh, I'll need a title and everything! Vanellope the Virus Slayer! Vanellope the Virus Crusher! No, no. . . I'll think of something. But what kinda weapon am I even gonna use? This is so exciting!"

"By the way, who's the one planning on paying me?" Rocket shot an inquiring look toward the redhead, who heaved a sigh.

"I'll get ya yer money, cheapskate. Anyways, she needs a bow. She can shoot pretty well. A bit shaky, but she can aim." Merida said.

Rocket rolled his eyes, being unable to hide how aggravated he seemed; it all showed in the face.

" _Ugh_ , you and those bows," he groaned, casting the redhead a glare, "they are _outdated_. I bet you she wants something more like this!"

He jumped to his feet and pulled out his gun again, grinning as it loaded up and made a loud _whirr_. Vanellope's eyes lit up in awe.

" _No_ , she needs a bow." Merida insisted, shoving the gun away. "The last thing she needs is somethin' like that, she'd blow up the whole website! She's just a wee yin for cryin' out loud! And isn't that type'a weapon prohibited here?"

"Sure, but no one's gotta know. What are they gonna do? Arrest me?"

"Considering ya know a cop, I would be a teeny bit more concerned about somethin' like that happening!"

The two continued to banter while Vanellope was lost in her excitement again. Calhoun had always wanted to get her her own gun, but it just never ended up happening. So to get this opportunity, she felt _really_ eager. Plus, banging up those viruses did feel pretty satisfying.

And then, something in particular had caught her eye out of the blue.

On the wall was a flamethrower. Her brown eyes stared at it intensely for a moment as she sunk into her deepest musing. She wondered if fire would do anything against viruses like how they hated soda. Now that she thought about it again, the way the viruses had reacted to the soda was actually mind boggling. For some reason, it really bothered them and caused them to short-circuit. She stared at the flamethrower some more, thinking and thinking. And then, an idea popped into her mind.

A wonderful idea, in fact. Her eyes slowly grew big as a smile appeared across her face, excitement washing over her like a wave. She let out a little squeak of eagerness at this sudden revelation on what her weapon could be.

She was brought out of her trance when she heard the bickering continue. Merida and Rocket's foreheads were pressed together as they argued.

"Bow!"

"Gun!"

" _Bow_!"

" _Gun_!"

" _Hey_!" Vanellope interrupted, causing it to end as she glitched onto the desk. The two looked heated as they glanced at her, foreheads still stuck together. "Do you take customized requests?" she looked at Rocket with hope in her eyes, and she clasped her hands together nervously.

The princess and raccoon backed off of each other and took a moment to think. Merida and him both shared a look before he rubbed the back of his neck, "Well. . . I wouldn't be against it."

"Really?" Vanellope glitched with glee. "And you're so smart you can make anything, right?!"

"Yeah, that's right." Rocket smirked. "Finally, someone who understands I'm a genius."

"So you definitely can make this weapon for me! It's gonna be the first of its kind!"

Rocket seemed interested. "Okay, kid, normally I wouldn't do this for just anyone, but since you're so keen on it all of a sudden. . . tell me what you want me to make."

Vanellope's eyes lit up with delight.

And then, she told him exactly what she wanted. He listened intently, understanding the child's idea; on the other hand, Merida's face was screwed up as she narrowed her eyes at the drawing Rocket was creating to replicate what Vanellope was telling him. By the time she was done feeding him her ideal weapon in mind, she was beyond excitement as she surveyed the picture the raccoon had drawn out.

"It looks great!" she couldn't hide her excitement. "It's going to be amazing!"

"I'll do my best. I'll need a while to make it up for you, though. In the meantime, go hang out with the prisses. Come back tomorrow."

"You're gonna make it in a day?!" Vanellope was flabbergasted, her eyes quickly growing wide. "I was thinking maybe a week? Sheesh, you work fast! When our karts break down in Sugar Rush, it takes _forever_ —" She cut herself off as memories refilled her head of her old home. It instantly put a damper on her mood as she quieted down. And then she mumbled, "Well. . . it doesn't matter, because Sugar Rush is gone now."

Merida and Rocket only stared at her as her form flickered a little, and she sighed. Vanellope just couldn't shake the horrible feeling she got when thinking about. . . her true home. She internally shuddered at the thought of the twenty-one years she'd spent in the game, and the fact that they were all in the past now, and how she could never go back because of her own selfishness. . . she really missed it.

Before she could think of anything else, she felt a firm touch on her shoulder.

"Hey," she wasn't expecting the gruff voice to sound softer now, and she looked up to meet Rocket's face. She felt a sudden wisdom come over her as she gazed deep into his expression, recognizing some sort of hurt there. Almost like he too had wounds like her own that had gone unhealed. It was clear he was about to coddle her in some way from that look he was giving her, and she wasn't exactly ready. "It does matter. Even if that place is gone now, and the memories are just memories, that doesn't mean you can't reflect happily on them."

Vanellope didn't flinch at the words; she didn't deny them in her mind, but all she could say was, "But what if right now I can't look back on them happily?"

"You'll learn to look back on them happily." Rocket offered, retracting his paw from her shoulder. "I'm no good at comfort, kid, but you'll get there someday. It just takes time. Everyone has lost _something_ , but we all learn to deal with the pain eventually."

"You sound like you're talking from experience." Vanellope said.

"You've got no idea, kid."

She gave him a grateful look, her eyes soft. Though the two of them were wildly different and came from completely opposite worlds, it was clear all of a sudden to her that it wasn't only _her_ who had suffered in the world. She'd thought a _lot_ about the princesses, and their memory banks that were filled with things that never had happened to _them personally_. But still, if those things hadn't ever happened, it still made them who they were today. Even Calhoun, who had never once touched her ex-husband felt a bitter pain about him sometimes, but had grown from her grief.

She realized just how much pain could get around, and how even a complete stranger could have their own pains, too. She. . . hadn't thought about it like that; but she recognized that, truly, she wasn't the only one who had suffered, just as she had thought before. The world wasn't only against _her_. Others had lost, too.

She was so blind with grief that she had ignored the fact that she wasn't alone, when she had wanted to isolate herself all this time, and felt like she had no one who understood.

What she didn't realize, though, was that it would take a chat with a near stranger to wake her up to that fact.

"Thank you." Vanellope settled on a response, sounding like herself again.

"Since when have ya gotten so _nice_?" Merida nudged Rocket. He contemplated her inquiry for a moment before he smirked.

"I've been all around the galaxy. Maybe I've picked up a few tricks about how to be a good person along the way."

* * *

With the promise of her weapon being made by the next day, Vanellope and Merida went on their way. They were riding the horse again; Vanellope still was wearing a smile on her face. She felt. . . relieved, in a sense.

While she had been reassured by the princesses before, and had heard of their own tragedies and shortcomings, she still felt alone. But now, it was as though something in her mind had finally shifted. The pain she was feeling wasn't going to leave anytime soon, but she realized now she didn't deserve to be alone. Everyone else had pain, too, and she couldn't let it get the best of her. She didn't want to drown beneath a sea of her own creation, weighing with regrets and sadness.

Instead, she would continue to fight against the current so that she too could look back on her time with everyone she held near and dear to her heart with fondness instead of emptiness—like others did. But while that seemed to be impossible now, perhaps it would become reality in the future.

Vanellope felt light after the events that had unfolded in the past hour. As if a weight had lifted off her shoulders. Like the eternal loneliness she had accepted and adorned like a crown had now crumbled.

The two girls had been continuing their ride back to the Princesses Lounge on horseback. They were talking casual as they reached the door; Merida was re-praising the young girl for her courage in taking on the viruses. Vanellope was trying to play it off, though smirking on the inside. She really did feel so much better. But that wasn't going to last long.

As they entered, though, the room was all silent. And boy, did Vanellope feel dread as she looked ahead.

She recognized her friends from Slaughter Race, all gathered like a pack of lost sheep without their shepherd and congregating with the other princesses. Vanellope felt a bitter taste in her mouth as she thought about. . . _Shank_. She hadn't exactly addressed _that_ in her mind yet. Aside from her cursing Shank up and down from deep within her soul, she hadn't come to terms with Shank's true intentions yet, and she wasn't sure she ever would.

"Vanellope, we've been so worried about you!" the first one to speak up was Little Debbie. Though Vanellope was still sizing up the group to make sure Shank _wasn't_ there, and thankfully, the older racer was absent.

Vanellope glitched slightly, hearing the edge of uneasiness in the woman's tone. "W-what are you guys doing here?" she asked, brows furrowed.

"Well, we thought you needed space after everything happened. So we've left you alone." Pyro explained.

"But. . . well. . . we have a problem." Felony added uneasily.

"Are the players noticing I'm gone?" Vanellope immediately asked, eyes widening. The idea had never crossed her mind.

"No, it's not that. You're fine." Butcher Boy reassured her. And then he seemed to hesitate. The others did too. This only made Vanellope feel more antsy.

"The players aren't noticing you're missing. They are noticing that _Shank_ is missing." Elsa took it upon herself to speak up, coming up beside Vanellope.

The dark-haired child's eyes widened slightly, and then she looked down. Her code exploded into binary for a moment as the information reached her brain. But then she frowned, her fists balling up.

"So? What's that got to do with me?" she demanded, her voice quickly rising as her glitches became worse. She looked at Shank's buddies seethingly. "I lost everyone I ever knew because she didn't let me go back! If I had known. . . I could've _done_ _something_! Now I have to go looking for her?"

The Slaughter Race squad's faces showed their visible reactions; between sadness and surprise, they all were taken aback by her words. It was clear her feelings toward Shank were still pretty bitter. Vanellope's brows were furrowed as she continued to glitch and think.

 _It was all Shank's fault I've felt so alone! It was all Shank's fault my whole world is collapsing in on itself. No one here understands it. No one here knows what I'm feeling—_

That was, until a voice broke through the fog that was clouding up her mind.

"Yesss is gone as well. The two of them went searching to find out what happened to the arcade. They wanted to try and right the wrong." Elsa said gently, crouching down as she put a hand on the girl's shoulder. A soothing action which actually worked. Vanellope's anger began to ebb away slowly as she comprehended what the queen had said.

"That doesn't. . . that doesn't matter." Vanellope's form glitched again, and Elsa's eyes grew sad. "Because of what she did, she prevented me from ever seeing my friends again. Don't you see how messed up that is? How could I. . . how could I ever forgive that?"

There was silence. No one was quite sure how to respond to her anguish. These feelings that she had been bottling up about Shank were definitely. . . not positive in the slightest. She just couldn't understand how Shank had been able to be so cruel, even if she _did_ want to keep her safe.

"Vanellope. . . I think it's time we tell you something that we've kept from you. Just because we don't like talking about it." Little Debbie said, the most quiet the girl had ever heard her.

Vanellope looked up in confusion, a glitch running through her code.

And then, just like that, the story of how Shank lost Shiv was retold. During the retelling, Vanellope couldn't help but feel a flurry of emotions wash over her. Surprise, sadness, guilt, anger, confusion came down on her all at once. Once a while ago, when Vanellope told Shank about Turbo, it seemed Shank wanted to reveal her own traumatic experience, but she didn't.

Now, Vanellope knew what she wanted to say, but hesitated on. This story. As it was retold, she couldn't help but be reminded of herself. Was that same sadness that Shank felt when Shiv left Slaughter Race the same as Ralph's pain of her wanting to leave? It made her feel angry at herself.

But that story, well. . . it explained. . . absolutely everything. Shank's selfishness in wanting to keep Vanellope away from the arcade, going through her phone, seeming more on the edge during the days leading up to the reveal. . . it all started to click.

And by the time the retelling was over, Vanellope was surprised she wasn't broken down into a crying mess. Because suddenly, the grudge she'd held against Shank. . . well, it wasn't really as thickly laid on now, even if it had lifted just slightly. No, there was no doubt she was still upset about the loss of her friends, and she still was angry at Shank, but at least. . . the logic behind her actions were adding up. She just didn't want to lose another person she cared so deeply about—that was all, but she made a horrible decision.

Shank didn't want to be held responsible for Vanellope's death, just as she felt responsible for Shiv's, even if that meant the girl would never see anyone she had previously loved ever again. It was obvious that if Shank had the opportunity presented to her to prevent something like that happening again, she was going to.

There were more words being spoken, but she had tuned them all out entirely. She thought back on before, when she realized she wasn't alone, and that the world wasn't against her. She thought back on how _horrible_ she'd been feeling to lose people she cared about.

Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she cared deeply about Shank. Her intentions toward Vanellope had always been good no matter what. She gave Vanellope the opportunity to follow her on-a-whim dream and supported her through the choice. And, she had inadvertently saved her life, even if it meant Vanellope would end up hating her. Vanellope, after all, would've rather gone down with her best friends than survive all alone. It was due to that, that she had felt so utterly hopeless and alone.

And for Shank to end up saving Vanellope's life at the extent of everyone else's life had made Vanellope feel like the most selfish, terrible person for surviving a tragedy that no one saw coming.

But at the end of the day, even with how deep her anger was, she still loved Shank. Someday, maybe she would be able to fully forgive her and push away her grief about all the horrible things that had happened recently. Maybe if she just put on a smile, she would be able to forget like Shank had hurt her.

She wasn't sure if she really could, but she did know she still cared for the woman deep down, no matter what grudge she held against her.

Vanellope herself couldn't bear think about losing someone else she cared about. And now, Yesss, who was another good friend to her, was missing as well. The whole thing seemed fishy. But Vanellope couldn't let more of her precious friends die on her. Not again, not _ever_ again, no matter how mad she was at one of them.

This time, she was going to see to it that they were safe, no matter what. She wasn't going to have more death haunt her.

She looked back up, and cleared her throat. The voices around her died down as they turned to listen to her.

"If I lose one more person that I love," her voice was soft, "I'm going to lose my mind. So, count me in. I'm going to find those two if it's the last thing I do! I might not have forgiven Shank completely, but. . . but I don't want to see her gone. I want to try and make our friendship work. I really do, even if. . . it takes forever."

While she was really, _really_ upset with Shank, she could at least now understand the logic behind her actions. It had cost the life of her friends, something that she knew deep down she could _never_ fully forgive. She hadn't exactly fully forgiven her racer friends' actions for tormenting her for fifteen years, after all—the kid knew how to keep a grudge going. But in the meantime, she didn't want Shank out of her life completely.

She wanted to work on their friendship as much as possible, and she wanted to try and forgive her. Even if her actions were something she could never fully forgive.

The facial expressions around the room stirred with surprise. This unexpected turn of events was not something the Slaughter Race gang saw coming, nor the princesses. There was quiet for a moment, and then it was broken.

"Atta girl!" Moana said from where she stood, looking at her proudly.

"And of course, we want to help too." Mulan said. "They're our friends too, after all."

"But what about the site?" Little Debbie asked.

"It can live without us for a while." Anna grinned.

"That's right." Elsa rejoined her sister's side.

"Now, let's make a search-party plan!" Ariel cried with a grin.

As the group gathered around to discuss, Vanellope felt a tap on the shoulder before she could join them.

"I'm proud'a ya, lassie." Merida smiled, eyes twinkling.

Vanellope grinned, because she was proud of herself, too.

Part of her was scared, though, and the smile faded away. She was afraid she would never see Shank again, just as she had wished before.

That was the last thing she'd ever said to Shank. _I never want to see you again!_

It echoed in her mind and haunted her, and guilt crept up on her once again. But she was conflicted. Her anger and sadness toward Shank was still very, very evident. That didn't mean she wanted to never see Shank again, though. She wanted to work out their friendship, that much was true, but. . . could she _really_? She would never get the chance to, though, if she never saw her again.

However, in that moment, she promised herself she would find Shank. Vanellope would try to learn how to forgive her, and they would be able to live on happy once more, just like the good old days before things went downhill.

Things could go back to normal, even though Vanellope's precious family and friends were all gone, right? Even though it was Shank who had prevented her from getting to them. Even though that thought still made her miserably angry beyond any reasoning. Even though she knew deep down, she would never be able to get over that.

 _Right?_


End file.
